From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has written a letter to the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, petitioning him to deny arms sales to Nigeria, which the federal government has requested for assistance in tackling insecurity in the country.
The strongly worded letter, written by IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, claims that Christians are being killed in Nigeria with arms sold to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram.
The letter reads in parts:
‘President Buhari has made Nigeria the most dangerous country in the world for Christians, Jews and Nigeria’s indigenous peoples, particularly those of the former Republic of Biafra.
‘Hundreds of thousands are routinely plundered, tortured or killed with impunity by Nigerian security forces controlled and populated by Buhari’s Fulani Islamic tribesmen, often in collaboration with Fulani herdsmen (Islamist terrorist group that has been internationally branded the 4th deadliest terrorist grouping in the world).
‘The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended listing Nigeria as a country of concern because of its religious oppressions. United States sales or transfers of weapons to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram are diverted to killing and terrorizing Christians and Jews. The Nigerian Army, which leadership is Fulani and Islamist is complicit in these illicit transfers.
‘President Buhari is promoting radical Islam in secular Nigeria. He has endorsed Sharia law in twelve northern Nigerian states. He has treated Boko Haram with kid gloves, releasing from detention hundreds arrested by the previous administration.’
Kanu further alleged that President Buhari ‘recruited them into Nigerian Army and offered generous foreign scholarship to hundreds of them. He has appointed radical Muslims to head every security agency in Nigeria, including Sheik Isa Pantami whose profuse support for Al Qaeda and Taliban was widely published recently.
‘Yet, Mr Buhari has refused to sack him from his sensitive position as Minister of Communication overseeing the biometric data of Nigerians. By defending Sheik Pantami, Mr Buhari is seemingly aligning with Mr Pantami’s terrorist sympathies.’
IPOB, while listing their grievances against President Muhammadu Buhari, urged the American president to deny the sales of weapons to Nigeria.
‘In conclusion, we state categorically that the national interests of the United States lie in protecting Christians and Jews in Nigeria, defeating radical Islam and preventing instability in West Africa which will altogether be enhanced by a US-led diplomatic pressure on the Nigerian government to – as a matter of urgency – agree to a UN-supervised referendum on Biafran Independence,’ the statement concluded.