From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has berated the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, for saying that the group was dead.

Reacting to the Minister’s recent statement on the group, IPOB said “the Minister and those he works for would know by middle of next year when a referendum would take place if IPOB was dead or alive”, insisting that no amount of propaganda would eliminate the group. 

Speaking with Sunday Sun yesterday, the Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Comrade Emma Powerful, said it was unfortunate that the Minister after seeing the impact of the boycott order by the group on the Anambra election still went on to deceive the people by saying that IPOB was dead.

  He said:  “IPOB family and its leadership worldwide do not wish to join issues with Mohammed or those who may desire to indulge in the laughable fantasy that IPOB has been weakened as a result of the successful boycott of the fraudulent Anambra elections. 

Mohammed’s comments should be viewed as a cleverly contrived diversionary tactics to deflect attention away from the devastating impact of the boycott on the psyche of the corrupt ruling class in Nigeria. We are therefore inclined to ask all right thinking people to disregard this latest outburst from Mohammed or better regard it as one of those his numerous ill conceived utterances.

  “By now, the public must be well accustomed to these wild proclamations that bears no resemblance to reality. They said the same thing about ending the recession but as we all know, the ravaging impact of this economic recession is still being felt by the ordinary people till today. 

  “Over the years, many opinionated commentators have relentlessly harped on the fact that Biafra was dead and buried. Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo popularised this myth when he told journalists last year during an interview that Biafra was dead. But today, the activities of IPOB, ably led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has not only confirmed that Biafra is alive, but has also proven that Biafra is the only issue capable of determining when Nigeria comes to an end, not the other way round. 

“Admittedly, not many people understand the inner workings or the strategies IPOB deploy periodically to accomplish its stated objectives. So, wild and idle speculations will be thrown about by enemies of Biafra in the hope of derailing our movement. 

“Again we are not moved nor disturbed by any statement coming from Mohammed’s Ministry of Information because having spent so much money to ensure a complete media blackout of all IPOB related news stories, our impact continues to resonate and dominate political space in Nigeria.” Powerful stated that IPOB remains the largest political movement on earth today, stressing that “we didn’t get to this position of preeminence by allowing ourselves to be easily distracted by blatant lies that cannot stand up to scrutiny.” 

  He added: “Our focus remains the upcoming Biafrexit referendum in the middle of next year, where anticipated voter participation, especially in Anambra, will be nearly 100 per cent. Nigerian government and her agents can say or do whatever they like. IPOB can guarantee the people that we are on course to peacefully remove Biafra from the Luggardian contraption called Nigeria.    “It is on record that IPOB is firmly entrenched in more than 100 countries around the world and deeply rooted in the subconscious of a people determined to sacrifice whatever it takes for their freedom. To kill IPOB will mean having to dismantle family meetings all over the world at the same time, which is an impossible task for anyone to accomplish. IPOB has been set up in such a way that it can only grow, not diminish. New family meetings are opening up all over the world on a weekly basis. So, how can such a colossal movement be weakened by mere utterance. 

“It is very unfortunate that some Nigerians, who form the primary audience of Mohammed’s propaganda machinery, would allow themselves to be deceived by the cheap lie that IPOB have lost the confidence of the people.”