Lai unhappy with US refusal to accept IPOB as terrorist group

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has bemoaned the refusal of the United States to accept that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) a group recently proscribed by the Federal Government, is a terrorist organisation.

IPOB, a group calling for referendum for an independent state of Biafra, was recently banned by Nigerian authorities and branded a terrorist organisation after a clash erupted in Umuahia, Abia State, between members of the group and soldiers of the Nigerian Army deployed in the five states of the South-east for a military exercise codenamed ‘Operation Python Dance II’.

Both the US and the European Union (EU) have refused to accept the categorisation of IPOB as a terrorist organisation.

But in his reaction on BBC Focus on Africa Wednesday night, Lai Mohammed regretted the position of the US on the IPOB issue, lamenting that it was “unfortunate.”

He added that terrorism has no boundary and drummed the need for all nations to work together to ensure it is defeated.

He said, “It is unfortunate (US opinion) because if countries decide to pick and choose which organisation is terrorist and which is 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 doesn’t strike.”

On why Nigerian Federal Government would not brand Fulani herdsmen that have murdered hundreds of Nigerians, destroyed many homes and properties terrorist organisation, the Information Minister argued that Fulani herdsmen’s criminality should not be misunderstood for terrorist act.

Read also: NWODO: Though I disagree with ‘divisive’ IPOB, it’s faulty to label it terror group

Justifying the reason for categorising IPOB led by Nnamdi Kanu as a terror group, Mohammed said that the group had already crossed the red line having confronted the Nigeria Army, set up its own parallel force, openly solicited for arms all over the world, and was already issuing its own passports and printing its currency.

He said, “Acts and utterances of IPOB were act of terrorism. For instance, Nnamdi Kanu said he wanted Biafra, not peacefully, but by force. And that if they don’t get Biafra, Somalia will be a paradise to the kind of mayhem they will unleash. He is the same man that set up his own Biafra National Guard and Biafra Security Service.”

Apart from US and EU who have refused to see IPOB as a terrorist organisations, back home in Nigeria, several lawyers and groups, including the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, have maintained that it was wrong for the Federal Government to brand IPOB a terrorist group.

 

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