President Muhammadu Buhari has approved modalities for proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
Information and Culture minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed made the disclosure on Wednesday, at a media parley with State House correspondents in Abuja
Mohammed said he would not join the debate over the legality or otherwise of the proscription of the group, saying “For those who are fixated with legality, I have good news for them, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the process of proscribing IPOB, and the procedure is on as I speak.
“But I ask, if the President had been overly concerned with legality, where would Nigeria have been today? If attacks in the South-east had attracted reprisals elsewhere in the country, what would have happened?
“But for the quick action of state governors in the South-east and the North, there would have been a conflagration of immense proportions.”
The minister commended the governors in the southeast for being proactive and “making it clear to IPOB that it has no support for its violent campaign.
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“By its action, the Governors have cut off the oxygen that IPOB needs to survive. If the elected Governors of all the states in the South-east have banned the activities of IPOB, who then is the organization fighting for?
Mohammed reiterated that “IPOB is a contraption against the Buhari Administration, and that it is being sponsored by those I call the Coalition of the Politically-Disgruntled and the Treasury Looters
“I stand by that statement despite the noise emanating from the usual suspects
“Finally, IPOB has decided to externalize its campaign. It has written to governments and parliaments in the West alleging genocide in the South-east.
“Even a dictionary definition of ‘genocide’ does not support that claim. IPOB has also engaged in using highly-emotive videos of killings, which it harvested from other lands and were doctored, to hoodwink the international community”, the minister said
South-East Governors last week Friday proscribed IPOB activities in the region, urging agitators to forward their positions on national issues through their governors or national assembly members.
The Defence headquarters had earlier declared IPOB, led by Nnamdi Kanu, a violent and terrorist organization which had a secret service and weapons of war.
END
