Following speculations that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is responsible for the murder of an Islamic cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Iyiorji, in Ebonyi state, the group has denied involvement in the killing as it was not part of its mandate.
In a press release by the spokesperson of the group, Mr. Emma Powerful, he said killing a Muslim will add nothing to its quest for the Biafra Republic.
Part of the release read: “IPOB does not engage in such barbaric killings and cannot be part of such heinous crimes against humanity. IPOB does not kill flies, talk of human beings and an Igbo man for that matter, irrespective of his religious belief.
“Important questions to ask are: why will IPOB kill this Igbo Islamic cleric? Is he a threat to the Biafra movement? How many of our known enemies have we killed?”
The group stated that Nigerian security agencies were fond of stage-managing confessions from criminals with the hope of indicting them.
They added that criminals tagged as unknown gunmen were not part of IPOB, stating that their activities are in the open and cannot be described as unknown.
“Some unscrupulous elements and petty thieves are constantly stage-managed by security agents to lie against IPOB members and ESN operatives.
“IPOB and ESN never killed any Army officer, Police officer, or DSS agent despite all provocations in the name of unknown gunmen since we started pursuing Biafra freedom.
“IPOB and ESN are not hiding their activities and cannot be called unknown gunmen because we are not faceless nor cowards. We are fearless before our enemies.” (Independent)
