Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has mocked the Federal Government’s budget of N654 million to monitor and crash Radio Biafra, insisting rather that the money is far below expectation to stop it from operation. Media and Publicity Secretary of the group, Emma Powerful in a statement he made available to Saturday Sun in Owerri yesterday also claimed that the Federal Government has made a similar attempt before , buying up the company that gave their radio station signal in Israel with two hundred million dollars.
“They have done that before when they bought the company that gave us signal in Israel, they will try again but they will fail, that one was about 200 million dollars, the N654 million is a small one compared to the two hundred million dollars.
“Let them bring more money, they can do anything they like but we are going to launch Radio Biafra station in all the northern states of the country , like our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu said, we are going to start from Buhari’s village, Daura in Katsina State. We know they would do everything within their power but they can never crash Radio Biafra, we have come to stay, we have crossed the rubicon, no going back , Biafra is coming even if they kill everybody, Biafra will still come”, Powerful asserted. The Federal Executive Council, FEC, had on Wednesday, approved N654 million for the deployment of hybrid spectrum monitoring system targeting illegal frequencies in the southern part of the country especially, the South East. The move was largely seen as targetting the growing agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, for an independent nation. Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chambers, Abuja. The Minister said that investigation had shown that the use of illegal frequencies in the country has become very rampant and a threat to the nation’s security. According to him, “The Federal Executive Council chaired by our boss, President Muhammadu Buhari has been briefed about an investigation carried out by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and also sought for the approval of deploying hybrid spectrum monitoring system most importantly to focus on the South Eastern zone of the country.
“Firstly, we have carried out an investigation of the use of illegal frequencies in the country which has become very rampant. From January to August 2020, within the period of eight months or thereabout, we discovered 320 frequencies being used all over the country and of this 320, 106 were illegal. This is very worrisome because the usage of this illegal spectrum or frequencies will compromise our security and safety in the country. It is because of the agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari in promoting security that we came up with this initiative of monitoring the usage of frequencies and to discover the legal and the illegal ones.
“For the legal ones, we will ensure that they get renewal (of their licenses) annually and for the illegal ones, necessary actions are being taken according to the gravity of the offence. We discovered that our monitoring did not cover South East. It covered five zones in the country: North East, North West, North Central, South West and South-South but South East has not been covered. It is because of this that we presented our memo, seeking for the council’s approval of N653,886,584 to procure and deploy hybrid spectrum monitoring system that will cover the southern part of the country, most importantly the south east.
“So, the council approved for the deployment and this project will go a long way in promoting safety and security and secondly, identify the usage of illegal spectrum and thirdly, enhance revenue for the federal government and fourthly, in the long run, it will create many jobs for the citizens.”