The Federal Government has described as "unfortunate" and "unacceptable," the position of the government of U.S over the declaration of
the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist group. The Minister of
Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave the government position
Wednesday night while featuring on BBC Television programme, "Focus on Africa".
“It is very unfortunate, if countries decide to pick and
choose which organisations are terrorists and which are not, bearing in mind
that terrorism has no boundary.
“I think what we should do is that every country should work
together to ensure that terrorism does not thrive,” he said. Speaking on why
the Government labelled IPOB a terrorist group, the Minister said, “the acts
and utterances of IPOB were acts and utterances of terrorists”.
“For instance, Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader was caught on
tape, saying that they want Biafra and not peacefully, but by force.
“He declared that if they do not get Biafra, Somalia will be
a Paradise with the kind of mayhem they will unleash on Nigeria.
“The group openly embraced arms and ammunition and the
leader set up Biafra National Guard, Biafra Secret Service and openly attacked
army formations”.
When asked by the anchor of the programme, Peter Okwoche,
why “other militarised group” like the Fulani herdsmen had not been classified
as terrorist group, Mohammed said that “acts of criminality should not be
confused with terrorism acts”.
He explained further: “When an organisation decides to not
just attack the Army but set up its own parallel government; “When an
organisation openly solicits for arms all over the world; when an organisation
starts issuing out its own passports and currency and does not recognise the
democratically elected government, then it becomes a different thing”.
The minister said that Nigeria is so fragile and an attempt
to allow such excesses from IPOB to continue could attract reprisal attacks
from other parts of the country and set the entire country on fire.
The President General of the Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief John
Nwodo, who was earlier interviewed on the programme, said that the labelling of
IPOB as a terrorist group was “extremely unfair and lopsided.”
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