The Federal Government says the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is being set up to destabilise the country.
This was the stance of the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, on Sunday while addressing a press conference in Lagos.
Mr Mohammed believes the group was sponsored by certain disgruntled elements, under the guise of fighting for the rights of the people of the South-East, to sabotage the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Nigerians must understand that IPOB was not set up to fight for the right of anyone or group, but as a tool to destabilise the nation, divert attention from the efforts of the Buhari administration and obliterate the laudable achievements of the government,” he said.
“IPOB is being sponsored by those I will call the ‘Coalition of the Politically Disgruntled and the Treasury Looters’. They believe that by sponsoring this group to destabilise the country and trigger chaos, they will realise their ambition of escaping justice and then be free to dip their hands into the nation’s treasury again”.
The minister questioned wondered why the activities of the group became heightened with the advent of the present administration.
He said, “If this is coincidental, then that coincidence is uncanny, at the least. Remember that Nnamdi Kanu, who led a protest at the Nigeria House in London against Boko Haram insurgency and in support of Nigeria’s unity, under the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration, has suddenly metamorphosed into an IPOB monster who will rather set the nation ablaze.”
Mohammed purported that IPOB thrived on exploiting the Nigeria’s fault line and that its modus operandi “is to trigger conflagration nationwide through attacks and reprisals”.
”Thankfully, IPOB has failed in its evil machinations. The good people of Nigeria have seen beyond those cheap tactics and have avoided being incited against one another.
“We must remain vigilant and resolute. We must all say no to the incendiary and divisive tendencies of IPOB and its cohorts,” he said.
The Minister commended the Nigerian military for labelling IPOB a terrorist organisation and for checkmating the group, as well as the South-East governors for proscribing the organisation.
“But for (the military’s) quick and decisive intervention, IPOB could have set the nation on fire. Thanks to the decisiveness of the military, today the Governors of the states in the South-east have wisely proscribed IPOB,” he said.
On some video being circulated on the social media, he said, “We call on all to subject such videos to the greatest scrutiny so as not to be misled.
“In particular, we urge the international community not to jump to any conclusion on the basis of such videos.”
Mohammed further appealed to the media to show greater restraint and avoid sensationalism in their reporting of the military exercise in the South-East, tagged “Operation Python Dance II”.
“The divisive and jaundiced opinions of some anarchists have been given a big play by a section of the media; this is wrong.
“Let me remind all of us of the role of the media, especially the radio, of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that left about 800,000 people dead,” he said.
