IPOB, ESN deny beheading policemen, accuses FG of plotting to implicate Kanu

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has disassociated its members as well as the Eastern Security Network (ESN) from the dastardly act of beheading the two policemen circulating in the social media.

In a release signed by IPOB media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful yesterday, the proscribed organisation maintained that its members were not in any way responsible for the beheading and does not operate in such a cannibalised manner.

He accused the federal government, who used the office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed to shop for evidence to nail the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who is facing terrorism and treasonable charges at the Abuja High Court.

Powerful said: “The attention of the global family of the IPOB ably led by our great leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been drawn to the spurious allegation by the Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed that we are responsible for the beheading of security agents in a viral video being circulated.

“The leadership of the Indigenous people of Biafra wish to state unequivocally that IPOB and ESN are a disciplined freedom movement and security outfit respectively and therefore such barbarity as seen on the said video is not, has never been and will never be part of our modus operandi.

“The perpetrators of such barbarism are neither IPOB nor ESN operatives. IPOB has remained a non-violent movement since inception. The Nigeria security agencies namely; The Nigerian Police, The DSS, and The Nigerian Army in collaboration with some traitor governors are the ones recruiting and arming hoodlums to perpetrate atrocities across Biafra land with the single objective to implicate and demonise IPOB.

“They are the brains behind the violence taking place in Biafraland and they have set up armed groups across Biafraland for this single objective to portray the ESN in a bad light.

“We must not forget that since the international community rebuffed the Nigerian government’s request to designate IPOB as a terror group, they have been looking for ways to justify their demand and this is just a part of their clandestine plans to tarnish the image of IPOB and the ESN.

“It is clear to all and sundry that IPOB and ESN have never engaged in any of the senseless killings going on in our land. ESN’s mandate is to resist terrorists and jihadists invading our ancestral land and destroying our crops and raping our sisters and mothers. IPOB members are not killers but freedom fighters struggling for the peaceful restoration of the Independent state of Biafra.

“We are not surprised at the desperation of our enemies to renew their carnages and atrocities in our land because they know that time is running out on them and their collaborators. Their intension has always been to create the wrong and negative impression that IPOB is a violent movement so therefore they should be blamed for the growing insecurity in Biafra land. They are looking for occasions to justify this warped narrative against IPOB and as usual they will continue to fail.

“We only pity the gullible minds who cannot see and read between the lines. We know the antics of our enemies. They are unsettled with the recent moves by some respected Igbo elders and Bishops to secure the unconditional release of our leader. They are pushing forward their strategies the main plank of which is to increase the wave of violence and barbaric acts including gruesome killings across Biafran land to create the impression that his followers are violent. They want to justify his continued detention and make efforts to release him difficult if not impossible. But we understand their game plan.

The world should know that those who don’t want our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu released are responsible for the mayhem in our land. They want to implicate him at all cost. But God will vindicate him. This same people were responsible for all the killings in Anambra State in the wake of the just-concluded governorship election with intent to blame their atrocities on IPOB but we outsmarted them when we cancelled our earlier order to commence civil disobedience in the form of sit-at-home to drive home our demand for the release of our leader.

“Now they are on the prowl again erroneously believing that they can use the criminal groups they created and armed to scuttle ongoing efforts to secure the unconditional release of our leader. We are watching and waiting,” the group stated.

(Adopted from THISDAY)