Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has expressed its dissatisfaction with what it described as lopsided sharing of the palliative of the Federal Government to cushion the effect of the coronavirus lockdown.
The group in a press statement by its media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, also accused the Federal Government of disbursing the National Cash Transfer (NCT)to the northern zone of the country while ignoring most people from the South-East and South-South.
Powerful noted that “while the National Cash Transfer Office handling the disbursement has concentrated on people from the northern zones, only a few persons in one state of the South-East were remembered in the largess.
“A critical analysis of the information on the database of the NCT office on the number of beneficiaries from the largess on a zone by zone basis, reveals that South East is at the bottom of the table just after South-South whereas northern zones come top.
“This is provocative and a blatant confirmation that Nigeria has incurable hatred for Ndigbo and indeed other Biafrans in the old Eastern region,” Powerful claimed.
He added: “This continued rejection and humiliation of the people of old Eastern region is a confirmation that the Fulani-led Federal Government does not see us as part of this concocted … called Nigeria. Nigerian state and her agency headed by Fulani people are making it more open for those who don’t know that Biafrans are not part of Nigeria.
“It baffles IPOB why NCT office limited the number of beneficiaries of the cash transfer from the Federal Government to a paltry 3,253 in South East, and 10,429 to South-South respectively. This is more annoying when juxtaposed with the number of beneficiaries from northern zones and the South-West zone.”
The group going by the statistics for the cash transfer said that it was a clear indication of rejection of people of the South East.
“For instance , the record in the NCT office further shows the beneficiary distribution as follows: North West, 112,744 persons, North Central, 88,008, North East, 44,405, and South West, 39,134.
“What other information does this criminal discrimination show other that open rejection for South East and South South zones; can the world now see why we earnestly yell for Biafra?”
He further emphasised that the marginalisation of the people of the South East and South South is the main reason for the agitation for a Biafra nation.
Powerful said: “This is an indication of our renewed and unwavering agitation for Biafra; it is anchored on the truth that we have been reduced to dehumanising second class citizens in the Nigeria our fathers fought so hard to free from British colonialism.
“We shall not give up in our quest for Biafra until this task is achieved because that is only where our dignity, security and justice as a people can be guaranteed.
“We, therefore, call on our brothers and sisters who for pecuniary gains have continued to collaborate with our tormentors to wise up and join us in the great fight for our common liberation. Biafrans must fight vigorously to restore Biafra sovereignty at this point in time,” IPOB scribe stated.
He also linked the numerous killings of Christians and Igbos in the northern part of the country as another reason for clamouring for Biafra agitation.
He said: “While unprovoked and barbaric killing of Christians in the most dehumanising form has continued unabated by Fulani herdsmen and terrorists in Nigeria, Biafrans who constitute a large number of the Christian community in the country have also continued to suffer from political exclusion, criminal marginalisation and deep hatred from the Fulani-led federal government of President Buhari.
“If the Buhari-led Federal Government can have the guts to discriminate against Nigerians at a time like this when there is global pandemic, at no time shall Biafrans expect love and equal treatment from the Federal Government?
“It’s more annoying considering the fact that the bulk of the resources that sustain Nigeria comes from oil revenue in Biafra land. Again, majority of the individual donors towards the relief effort on Covid-19 pandemic also come from Biafra. What have we done to deserve this unending hatred by Nigeria?
“We, therefore, wish to reiterate that the pursuit and agitation to restore Biafra as a sovereign nation is our prerogative right which no one has the power to stop. Biafrans must come together to demand the independent state of Biafra now or be ready to receive more insults and provocative treatments from Fulani- dominated Federal Government,” Powerful said.