The IPOB criticised Uzondinma through a statement released by its media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, on Monday.
The Indigenous People of Biafra has condemned Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma on his recent comment that the group hijacked the Eastern Security Network from South-East governors.
The IPOB criticised Uzondinma through a statement released by its media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, on Monday.
Uzodinma, last Friday, alleged that the IPOB and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, hijacked the ESN from the governors of the South-East region.
The governor, while addressing journalists on Friday night, however, disclosed that the South-East governors would meet in Owerri, the Imo State capital, to plan modalities that would see to the formation of a security outfit for the region.
Uzodinma said, “The governors will not want to be a copycat, especially with the pressure put on us after the formation of Amotekun by the South-West governors.
“In the next couple of weeks, governors of the South-East will hold a security summit in Owerri with a view to fashioning out modalities for setting up a security outfit for our region. We will hold an elaborate discussion with a view to finding a lasting solution and to complement the work of security agents in the country.
“South-East governors tried to set up the Eastern Security Network by working with Ohanaeze Ndigbo. The attorneys-general of the five South-Eastern states have already anchored a report on it and before we know it, IPOB hijacked the name and started using it to commit crime.
“That arrangement has not stopped. We are trying to take a review. We will come up with an outfit that will be lasting. We don’t want to do things because others have done it or be copycats. There are permutations and we must defend our people and ensure that there is no external aggression."
Reacting, IPOB said, “The attention of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), ably led by our great Leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has been drawn to the fallacious, amusing and shameful claims by the Supreme Court Administrator in Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, that IPOB hijacked Eastern Security Network, ESN, from South-East governors. This blatant lie has only confirmed the dubious character of Uzodinma as an unrepentant fraudster.
“We don't need to belabour ourselves in convincing the public over who set up ESN because it is public knowledge. For five months, our leader was begging South-East and South-South governors to float a regional security outfit to protect and defend our people against genocidal attacks by terrorists masquerading as Fulani herdsmen.
"Our leader even wrote a letter to the governors which was made public but they turned a deaf ear to all the pleas, including the clamour by the people for a regional security outfit.
“Every honest person in the zoo will attest to the fact that ESN was floated by IPOB in response to the yearnings of our people for self-defence against terrorists. It was a child of necessity borne as a result of the failure of the governors to rise to their responsibility of protecting the lives and property of the people. Their inability to stand with the people was because of their usual tendency to please their caliphate slave masters even to the detriment of their people.
“Let somebody please remind Hope Uzodinma to stop disgracing himself further by claiming what does not exist. Anyway, we can understand his frustration. He had attempted but in vain, to infiltrate and possibly hijack ESN but was disappointed, hence his resort to cheap blackmail. But this too will not fly!
The statement further said that the governors from the region are not needed in the sustenance of the ESN, which has the support of Igbo people from 120 countries. Also, the group berated different people of Igbo extraction, labelling them traitors for coming to lay claim to the ownership of IPOB or its components units since its inception.
“We wish to remind Hope Uzodinma that IPOB does not need him nor his fellow traitor governors to sustain ESN. IPOB with a presence in over 120 countries is resolutely committed to sustain and finance ESN to actualise its mandate. We don't need traitors and saboteurs in a crucial matter like the security of our people.
“Now we know the sponsor of the Owerri hotelier who vigorously campaigned for Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB to hand over ESN to South-East Governors. The other time it was Emeka Emekasiri who was disgracing himself with the claims that they formed IPOB and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu hijacked it from them.
“Treacherous Ralph Uwazuruike has also repeatedly claimed that Radio Biafra was formed by him but later hijacked by Nnamdi Kanu. These are a bunch of envious traitors who have no limit to their lies in their desperation to blackmail our leader but the Biafra agitation has gone beyond their distractions.
“Hope Uzodinma is only bitter knowing what awaits him. He knows that his days of reckoning are fast approaching. For colluding with the Janjaweed in military uniform to abduct IPOB members, Uzodinma knows he cannot escape justice. He should stop laying false claims to the formation of ESN because that too cannot save him.”