The financial headquarters
of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is in France, Minister of
Information, Lai Mohammed, said yesterday. He said records showed that the
secessionist group is getting money
both from home and overseas.
The Federal
Government knows where the funding is coming from, the minister told reporters
after the weekly cabinet meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, He said: “We
have the records, we know IPOB collects money from many people from Diaspora,
they collect money from many people in Nigeria they collect money from some
foreign countries, this is clear.
“Let me tell you,
the financial headquarters is in France, we know...You have to block the
sources of finance that is what I said recently. “It is incontrovertible that
some people in Diaspora contribute money to IPOB, where does he get his money
from. “We know this as a fact again there are a few very knotty
diplomatic issues which you need to skip.
Asked to name
IPOB’s financiers, the minister responded: “I think this is not rocket science.
Any treasury looter would do everything possible to distract government. “If
by any act, God forbid, Nigeria is today engulfed in war...what would be the
first priority of government? It will be to quell that riot. “So, it is a way of distraction to ensure
that government is not focused.” “I don’t want any
diplomatic row, we know for a fact where the funding is coming from... we have
been working on it and we will not stop,” he said. UK govt refused to shut
Biafra radio. The minister also pointed out that despite all the damages done
by Radio Biafra, the British government was allowing it to continue to operate,
hiding under to right freedom of expression. “Who does not know that the IPOB
internal radio is located in London? We know the diplomatic moves we have been
taking and approaching the UK, all the damages it (Radio Biafra) has
done, but they don’t see it that way, for them (the British government), it is
about freedom of expression.
“If we’ve a person
in Nigeria openly soliciting arms to come and fight the UK, what would you
think of? Would you consider that freedom of expression? And this is a country
that also has had a history; what did Iraq do to be labelled a terrorist
organisation? Asked if President Muhammadu Buhari approved the
proscription of IPOB activities, he said: “There is a procedure for
proscription; the Attorney General will follow the procedure which he is doing.
But for me, do you want the president to wait for this to be put into law
before you take action and stop looting or killing? Where will Nigeria be today
if there is conflagration in Lagos or Kano? Like the governor of Abia said
yesterday (Tuesday), there are about 11 million Igbos living outside the
southeast; that is not a small number, it’s not a joke.”
The minister said
but for being very lucky last week, “there would have been massive bloodshed if
reprisals had taken place outside the southeast.” Mohammed said this was
averted because traditional rulers, state governors and other leaders went out
to “pacify people.” He observed that the kind of stories trending on the social
media had not helped things, saying “As a matter of fact, there was one stating
that a major general had been killed, not knowing that it was a retired major
that was killed in Benue State over land matters. That would have set the
entire country ablaze.” “We’re in a very dangerous situation and actually we’re
sitting on a keg of gun powder. The peace that you are seeing is deceptive, we
must continue to work on it and we must continue to counter this very untrue
narrative.”
He said “As
cosmopolitan as Abuja is, it took the FCT minister to mobilise all the 17
graded traditional chiefs and emirs in Abuja to really hold meetings with all
the stakeholders to pacify the situation. You can imagine what would have
happened if the people of Kano or Kaduna had started retaliation.” ‘IPOB
petitions western nations, alleges genocide’ The Federal Government said IPOB
has decided to externalise its campaign. Lai Mohammed said the separatist
group “has written to governments and parliaments in the West, alleging
genocide in the southeast.” The minister, however, stated that “Even a
dictionary definition of ‘genocide’ does not support that claim.”
Dailytrust
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