…Urges Trump to intervene, stop the move
THE Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has raised the alarm over an alleged plan by President Barack Obama of United States to deploy 500 units of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) popularly called “Drones” with a view to using them to bomb and massacre Biafrans under the guise of stopping pipeline vandalism.
The group alleged that the deployment and bombings was supposed to have started about six months ago, but was put on hold because of the possible negative impact on the chances of Mrs. Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election.
A statement by the spokesperson of IPOB, Mr. Emma Nmezu and Dr. Clifford Iroanya, said a new date of June 1, 2017 was later agreed for the commencement of the exercise, because Obama was confident that Mrs Clinton would win the election.
“Fortunately for the Biafrans, Mrs. Clinton lost the election and Mr. Donald J. Trump won. As IPOB congratulates Trump on his well-deserved victory, we call upon him to cancel this scheduled mass-murder of Biafrans. The reason Trump must cancel the deployment of drones that would be used to kill Biafrans is that it goes against the Leahy Law.
“Just like Intersociety noted in their press statement, ‘the Leahy Law is a U.S. human rights law that prohibits the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity.’ It is on record that over 5,000 innocent and unarmed Nigerians within one year have been murdered by this administration and most of those killed were Biafrans,” they alleged.
They added: “Instead of Trump continuing with Obama’s plan to deploy drones to exterminate Biafrans, we strongly recommend that the President-elect insists on President Buhari obeying the rule of law and that he should practice true constitutional democracy devoid of ethno-religious bigotry and genocidal tendencies. Trump must demand from Buhari that he respects the inalienable and irreducible rights of indigenous people to self-determination as enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).
“Also, Trump should tell Buhari to ensure that those who perpetrated heinous crimes and regime atrocities must be brought to book. In particular, we re-echo the words of Intersociety which state as follows: “Total policy reversal on the part of the Buhari administration; particularly on the areas of regime image and communications (i.e. moving away from regime falsehood, deceit and propaganda); trade and investment; human rights, rule of law, good governance, security and criminal justice administration”.
“Such policy reversal must include unconditional release of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu and all other political detainees as well as de-criminalisation and de-stigmatisation of the IPOB and Islamic Movement of Nigeria and their lawful activities.”
