The Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, says the proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister disclosed this to State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting which held on Wednesday in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
“Before the President left, he did approve the proscription but the process is on,” said Mohammed who asked what Nigeria would have been if President Buhari had been “overly concerned with legalese.”
According to the minister, the group was proscribed because of its activities which he said were threatening the peace of the country.
He, however, commended the governors in the South East and their northern counterparts for their interventions in sustaining the peace in their regions.
“If attack in the South East had attracted reprisals elsewhere in the country, what would have happened?” he questioned.
Mohammed further accused IPOB of engaging in terrorist activities which included setting up military and paramilitary organisations, insisting that said no country would tolerate such.
“Ipob has engaged in terrorist activities such as setting up military and paramilitary, clashing with the national army, and attempting to seize riffles from soldiers using weapons such as machete, Molotov cocktails, and mounting roadblocks to extort money from people among others,” he said.
“Their leader (Nnamdi Kanu) has openly solicited for arms and for those who have engaged in semantics or legality, I ask which country in the world will tolerate these activities I’ve listed above?
“I ask which national army would look the other way when it is being attacked by a band of thugs, for those who are fixated with legality, I have good news for them; the president has approved the process of proscribing IPOB and the procedure is on,” he added.
