Ohanaeze Says Labelling IPOB Terrorist Group While ‘Killer’ Herdsmen Walk Free ‘Biased’

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Anambra State chapter, Saturday, called on the federal government to ‘de-label’ the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra as a terrorist group. According to the chapter, labelling the IPOB as a terrorist group was not justified when some groups that are killing innocent Nigerians ‘are walking the streets free’.

The president of Ohanaeze in Anambra State, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, stated this during the Ohanaeze executive meeting held in Awka, weekend. He said the federal government’s stance on the IPOB was biased, and ought to be reviewed. He also advised the Buhari administration to concentrate more on the Northeast to quell the uprising there.

Ogene regretted that the Buhari administration had refused to prosecute the herdsmen, bandits and other anti-human groups in the country who perpetrate kidnapping and killings ongoing in the northern part of Nigeria.

Quoting him, “Have you ever heard that the IPOB kidnapped or killed anybody unjustly? Why would the government go to court within 24 hours after a misunderstanding between the Operation Python Dance II of the Nigerian Army and the IPOB without a proper investigation and declared the group a terrorist organization? And those with intention of tarnishing the image of the country before the international communities are moving freely without any government action.”

While describing the IPOB as a formation of young people of the Igbo extraction that deliberate on the prospects of Ndigbo, Okeke-Ogene said, “I think what we should do as one people is for us to continue to pray and work together to ensure that the current security challenges tormenting the country come to an end, and not to tag a particular group in a region that happens to be the safest region in Nigeria as a terrorist organization.”

Speaking on the recently rescued abducted school boys of Government Science School, Kankara, Katsina State, Okeke-Ogene called on the federal government to checkmate what goes on across Nigeria’s borders, especially in the north.