The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has condemned in strongest terms, the bloody attack that led to the killing of eight joint security personnel including the Nigerian police officers, military officers and officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp (NSCDC) at Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State.
SaharaReporters reported on Tuesday that the gunmen shot and burnt eight officials of the Joint Task Force (JTF) at Eke Nku, Umualumaku in the local government area of the state.
The hoodlums were said to have taken the JTF team unawares, ambushed and shot them, killing two Nigerian Navy staff, two officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), two soldiers, and two police personnel.
Reacting to the attack, IPOB on Thursday in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, described it as reckless attacks, stressing that such "shedding of blood is not needed to achieve Biafra freedom in our territory."
Powerful stated that the Biafran agitation championed by IPOB since 2012 had been totally peaceful "until the Nigerian government started sponsoring splinter groups in order to blackmail IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu (IPOB leader)," adding that "Today, the monsters they have spoon-fed are consuming them."
He alleged that "The Nigerian government overtly and covertly sponsors criminal activities in Biafran (South-East) territory so that they can tarnish the hard earned global image of a non-violent IPOB movement and additionally hope to blackmail ESN (Eastern Security Network, an armed wing of IPOB) which was a product of necessity set up to fill the gap."
According to Powerful, "The Nigerian government knows those behind this latest attack on security personnel. They shouldn’t feign ignorance or claim to be surprised because they are working with the perpetrators of that unnecessary attack in order to blackmail IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu.
"Sacrificing some Nigeria police and military officers' lives to achieve blackmail against IPOB has been their old strategy and dirty game.
"If indeed, the Nigeria government is interested in fishing out the murderers of the Police officers at Ehime Mbano, they know exactly what to do and where to focus their attention.
"We, therefore, ask the Nigeria police to go after the criminals who murdered their colleagues and not after innocent villagers."
IPOB however warned against invasion of Ehime Mbano community by security personnel as a result of the attack and killing of the security officers.
"Nigeria security forces must know that the villagers are innocent and are not safe in the hands of these criminals who are claiming to be fighting for Biafra freedom but who, in actual fact, are proxies of the Nigerian government set up to destabilise Biafraland.
"IPOB doesn't encourage people to murder or waste innocent people's lives because lives are sacred and must be preserved and protected. We encourage Nigeria security to use their intelligence prowess to fish out the perpetrators.
"Nevertheless, we in IPOB condemn the siege and attack on the Southeast by the police and military and other Nigeria security forces. Nigeria must dismantle illegal roadblocks that they have set up across the Southeast Region to be extorting from motorists. They have mounted roadblocks and illegal checkpoints but are still not able to stop criminals.
"As we condemn the bloody attack on the police and the military, we also condemn the indiscriminate military and police roadblocks in the South-East. The Nigerian security forces should let Ndigbo breathe."