Powerful stated, “There has been military siege and terror in the East orchestrated by the Nigerian government.”
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has accused the President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government of committing "genocide" against the people of the South-East region in the country.
The IPOB made the allegation on Friday in a statement issued by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, while reacting to a report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) on the exposure of alleged killings of “innocent civilians” by Nigerian security operatives in the South-East region.
Powerful stated, “There has been military siege and terror in the East orchestrated by the Nigerian government.”
IPOB said, “During which tens of thousands were unlawfully detained and tortured, over 6,000 blindfolded or face-bagged and bundled up late in the night from the East and dumped uninvestigated and untried in secret military locations and prisons in seven northern states of Niger, Kogi, Nasarawa, Benue, Kaduna, Zamfara and FCT Abuja.
“Included are thousands of dumped-to-die or subjected to "kangaroo trials” inside WAWA Army Cantonment in Niger State.
“There were dozens of deaths weekly in these various custody holding Igbo youths.
“Over 300 Igbo communities were reported to have been raided, 6,000 civilians' houses were razed down, 180,000 people were displaced, 1 million people were frightened, and they were forced to abandon their homes and flee.
“N450 billion defenceless civilians' properties were lost to military burnings and destructions, N3 trillion (presently about $2 billion or previously about $5 billion) illegally seized, and illicitly extorted at roadblocks and other illegal checkpoints on gun-points."
The IPOB noted, “South East is the most peaceful region even though the Nigerian government and her murderous security forces with other government contracted non-state actors in collaboration have sponsored criminals doing everything to make the Eastern region unsafe and insecure.
“IPOB and its members and sympathisers have always been the target of the state actors and other state sponsored non-state actors and criminals.
“In their desperate efforts to destroy the legal demands for self-determination championed by IPOB, the Nigerian government has killed thousands and displaced many innocent people in the South East.
“All the State sponsored violence pinned on IPOB and ESN by the Nigerian government were intended to blackmail IPOB locally and internationally.
“The Nigerian government's provocative actions were intended to provoke IPOB into picking up arms against their government.
“We have resisted all their provocative actions as we remain focused on the Biafra Referendum that will be supervised by the international community any time soon.
“The Intersociety latest report should not be overlooked locally or internationally.
“IPOB calls on the international community to hold the Nigerian Government and her murderous Security Forces accountable for the extrajudicial killings, forceful disappearances, illegal abductions and tortures, and destruction of properties of Biafrans in the South-East Region.
“The Nigerian government should be held accountable for terrorism and genocidal actions they carried out against innocent Biafrans. Biafran's lives matter. We deserve justice.”