Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has said that it would not allow the establishment or implementation of the Ruga settlement scheme anywhere on Biafran soil.
It also restated its resolve to confront and drive away the “Fulani terror herdsmen” wherever they are found even with their police and army support.”
Consequently, IPOB had cautioned governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State to immediately withdraw from the alleged concluded arrangements to give the herdsmen land in Newe and Nome communities in Enugu and Olokoro in Umuahia, or face the consequences.
In a statement, IPOB Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, the group said: “It has come to the knowledge of the great family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State have both concluded arrangements to hand over our land in three senatorial zones of Enugu State and Olokoro in Umuahia to Fulani terror herdsmen as part of their clandestine RUGA implementation programme in the East.
“We have also discovered that Governor Ugwuanyi along with some traditional rulers and president-general of some communities also connived and handed over a land belonging to Newe in Aninri and Nome in Nkanu communities of Enugu States to Fulani terrorists and their cattle.
“The said land has been in dispute for years between the two communities but now Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has forcefully taken these ancestral lands and handed them over to the same Fulani terror herdsmen that are responsible for hacking to death dozens of Enugu indigenes in Nimbo and other parts of the state without any reprimand.”
IPOB described as unfortunate that instead of apprehending and prosecuting the marauding murderers, they were being empowered by giving them a RUGA settlement in Enugu State yet the governor publicly claimed he had not done so.
The group further said: “This level of criminal deception from South-East governors has placed the entire Biafraland in danger of a whole-scale Fulani invasion.
“We IPOB cannot be dying and placing our lives in danger on a daily basis across Biafraland, fighting well-armed Fulani terrorists with our bare hands only to have some governors undermine our noble effort.
Anybody related to the governors or other Fulani slaves in government houses in the East must warn them to desist from their suicidal undertaking to hand over our land to Fulani Islamic caliphate.
“We are equally aware that other state governors and politicians in Biafraland are having a series of secret meetings on how to allocate our sacred land of Biafra to Fulani terrorists for their Ruga settlement on the pretence of a renamed National Livestock Programme (NLP) initiated by people in the presidency.
“IPOB does not wish to abandon the critical task of confronting Fulani terrorists in our forests and bushes in order to face these governors and their families in our quest to secure our land. We will not spare any person or persons implicated in the conspiracy to Islamise Biafraland through forced Fulani settlements.”
The group charged its people in Enugu and other parts of Biafraland to remain at full alert and “continue to report every suspicious Fulani movement to the nearest IPOB family unit for appropriate action.”
It, therefore, warned that “IPOB can never and will never allow the establishment or implementation of Ruga settlements anywhere on Biafran soil. We shall continue to confront and drive them away wherever they are found even with their police and army support.”