IPOB made the call in a statement issued by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, while insisting that the insecurity in the South East was sponsored.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has called on the international community, the British government, and the President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government to investigate the continuous insecurity in the South East region of Nigeria.
IPOB made the call in a statement issued by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, while insisting that the insecurity in the South East was sponsored.
“We are calling on the international community to please ask the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma and ex-Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, and the Nigerian government who are those responsible for the Imo State prison break in 2020.
"Governor Hope Uzodinma and the then Nigerian Attorney General, Abubakar Malami (SAN) must tell us who were responsible for the prison break operation that lasted for more than four hours unchallenged in the middle of the state Police headquarters, Obinze Army barracks, and DSS State headquarters in Imo State and other security agencies,” Powerful stated.
The IPOB spokesperson noted that in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report of 2016, the South East region was named the most humanly secured geopolitical zone in Nigeria.
According to him, “South East has been the epicenter for IPOB peaceful rallies in Nigeria since 2010. IPOB has never recorded any form of violence in all the crowded peaceful rallies we have held all over the world.
“However, when Muhammadu Buhari took over the Nigerian government in 2016, they applied several brutal forces to stop IPOB's peaceful rallies for Biafra's self-determination. In the process, a lot of IPOB members were murdered in cold blood during peaceful rallies by the Nigerian security forces.
“Until today, many abducted IPOB members who were forcefully disappeared have not been found. Some IPOB members were permanently deformed by bullets, injuries, acid, and chemicals and tortured by the Nigerian security forces.
“Irrespective of all these provocations, IPOB remains peaceful. Globally, in over 100 countries where IPOB is permitted to operate, including in Nigeria, no IPOB member has ever been convicted for any crime while performing IPOB functions,” he added.
Powerful further stated that preliminary investigation by the IPOB Intel group (M.Branch) has revealed that “Due to the inability of the Government of Muhammadu Buhari and current Government of Bola Ahmad Tinubu to provoke IPOB into violence and unprepared war by using brutal force and blackmail, they hired infiltrators to infiltrate the movement of IPOB.
“On the international level, the Nigerian government colluded with Britain, Kenya and others to abduct our leader Nnamdi Kanu and detain him illegally for years.
“The objective is to tag their violent activities on IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu.
“This is to provide their already concluded evidence to the court to jail our leader Nnamdi Kanu and also to blackmail the IPOB movement globally.
“Though IPOB has consistently disassociated the movement and Nnamdi from the violent criminals led by Simon Ekpa, the Nigerian state remained adamant in tagging their activities on the IPOB movement.
“The governors of the Eastern Region must not keep mute over this insecurity or allow Hope Uzodinma, Abubakar Malami, and others to destroy the region because of their selfish interest and political maneuvers to serve their masters.
“IPOB will name those involved in no distant future and tell the world why they are doing so.
“If indeed the International Community will shun political influence and seek to know the truth and those behind the insecurity in the Eastern Region, the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), African Union (AU), Amnesty International (AI) and other lovers of peace can use their Intelligence Units to investigate the insecurity and insurgency in the South East and South South Regions.
“IPOB maintains that the insecurity in the Eastern Region is State sponsored. Let the International Intelligence community carry out an independent security investigation in the South-East and publish their findings.”