Military Right To Declare IPOB Terrorist Organization – Sagay

Chairman, presidential advisory committee against corruption (PACAC), Itse Sagay, has given the military thumps-up for declaring the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) a terrorist organisation.

Sagay said the government needed to curb IPOB, because of the violent and abusive nature of its leader Nnamdi Kanu.

The PACAC boss said the group went too far in burning a police station, killing an officer and establishing road blocks to kill Northerners.

According to him, if IPOB is not stopped, Nigeria would turn into a tinderbox.

He applauded the north for their “maturity and sense of restraint” in handling the situation.

“Whilst I’m not sure of the legal parameters of that declaration, in practice, I agree. If you look at it, we’re very lucky that this thing did not get out of hand,” Sagay told The Nation.

“Even if you want Biafra, you don’t have to be violent. They (IPOB) were coming in their thousands, establishing road blocks, bringing out northerners – for what, I don’t know – to kill some of them? If that is allowed, then the country is finished. Then they burned down a police station, killed a policeman.

“For Christ’s sake, if you look at the words that Kanu uses on the social media, how he has described our President and the rest of us as living in a zoo – abusive, violent, intemperate words – kill, kill, kill, all those in my view, constitute in totality acts of terrorism in which they can push undiscerning youths into rage and violence, which can be destructive.

“You saw Moslems seeking protection in Port Harcourt. If you start killing northerners and the north reacts, then we’ve had it.

“I just thank God that the north is showing some maturity and some sense of restraint while this is being curbed. But we really need to curb IPOB, otherwise they will turn this country into a tinderbox.”