…IPOB condemns Zuckerberg
From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
THE Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has condemned the action of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Facebook satellite, Mr Mark Zucherberg, in shutting down the Radio Biafra Facebook London group account from Facebook.
The Radio Biafra London Facebook group wºas before its shutdown the most vibrant discussion forum on Facebook with nearly one million members.
In a statement yesterday, the Director of Media and Publicity of IPOB, Mr. Emma Powerful, wondered why Zucherberg, a Jew, whose family benefited from the freedoms and opportunities the land of the free United States of America had to offer, can turn around to brutally suppress freedom of speech and expression.
Stressing that the action was beyond human understanding, Powerful said “Mark Zuckerberg must know that the day he cut the deal with President Buhari at Aso Roc,k his Facebook satellite was destroyed at the launch pad. That was a sign from the Most High that he should stay out of this battle between good and evil.”
“Look at Nigeria today and know that God’s anger is upon her and her leaders because they dared to arrest Nnamdi Kanu. Satlink Israel lost their satellite because Buhari persuaded them to remove Radio Biafra satellite radio broadcast from their services. Nobody comes against IPOB and survives it. We urge you to retrace your steps and reinstall Radio Biafra London Facebook group,” Powerful stated.
Nnamdi Kanu, director of the Europe based Radio Biafra and leader of IPOB was arrested by the Department of State Services, when he came on a visit to Nigeria in 2015, and has since been in detention despite being granted bail by a Federal High Court, Abuja.
In the face of the subsisting defiance of the court orders, a pro-democracy group, Human Rights Writers Association, HURIWA, had asked President Muhammadu Buhari to end what it described as “persistent political persecution” of Kanu, the Director of the Europe based Radio Biafra and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
The group urged the government to dialogue with the group and also address the issues fueling the agitation for the actualization of the state of Biafra.
In a statement issued by HURIWA, and jointly signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affaires Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, it was noted that successful observance of the stay-at-home order by IPOB, and its affiliates in the South East, was a “clear demonstration that it was now more than ever urgent that meaningful and that constructive dialogue towards a peaceful resolution to the groundswell of agitations for self-determination are started.”
It said the prolonged detention under dehumanizing conditions of the founder of the Radio Biafra by the president amounted to the use of psychological and physical torture against voices of dissent.
“The pattern of unduly overstretched detention and willful disrespect to the reported bail orders represents a serious breach of the human rights of the detained leader of IPOB and an abuse of power particularly since it is a notorious fact that twice, the government disobeyed binding bail orders granted in favor of Nnamdi Kanu by competent courts of law.”