Pro-Biafra group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has on Sunday, June 19, 2016 declared support for the new militant group operating in the oil-rich region of Southern Nigeria, the Niger Delta Avengers.
“The Indigenous People of Biafra, under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, hereby state that we support our kith and kin – the Niger Delta Avengers who are fighting for the freedom of our people from the enslaving Islamic Republic of Nigerian Government,” a statement signed by IPOB spokespersons, Emma Nmezu and Clifford Iroanya, said.
The Niger Delta Avengers is a militant group waging a campaign against oil production in Nigeria with a view of obtaining a free Niger Delta Republic.
The Avengers have presented an 11-point demand to the Nigerian government, one of them is the release of the Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB who is being held by the Muhammadu Buhari government on charges of treason.
“Mr Nnamdi Kanu, the Leader of IPOB must be released unconditionally as the court said,” the Niger Delta Avengers listed as a demand on its website in February 2016.
Another pro-Biafra group, the Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign Biafra, MASSOB, pledged allegiance to the Niger Delta Avengers.
Read the full IPOB press release reproduced below:
Press Release
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF BIAFRA SUPPORT OUR KITH & KIN – THE NIGER DELTA AVENGERS
The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB) under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu hereby state that we support our kith and kin – the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, who are fighting for the freedom of our people from the enslaving Islamic Republic of Nigerian Government. We want to place it on record that IPOB under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has no connection with some groups who are claiming on the pages of Nigerian newspapers that they do not support our fellow freedom fighters – the NDA.
We make reference to a particular group which is a well-known turncoat and their leader who has been bribed with oil blocks allocations in the oil-rich areas of Biafraland. This same compromised group is known to have started the ugly incidence of kidnapping in Biafraland and their members often used as thugs and hired killers for politicians in Nigeria.
The NDA have consistently stated that the release of IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a precondition for any discussion with Nigeria. Unfortunately and disgracefully, the incompetent and intellectually challenged Nigerian Government has swept this demand under the carpet while magnifying the notion of amnesty payments and resource control as reasons for the NDA‘s actions. For the avoidance of doubt, the NDA is fighting for the freedom of the people of Biafra and not for amnesty payment or for resource control as some commentators would like to believe. When Biafra is finally liberated from the bondage called Nigeria, resources shall be controlled by the owners of the land where those resources are located. The perennially incompetent Nigerian Government should stop deceiving the entire world into believing that what the freedom fighters of NDA are demanding is resource control.
Amnesty is associated with criminality and a people who are fighting for their freedom should not be unjustly termed criminals. The notion and talk of amnesty for our own freedom fighters (the NDA) is a misnomer and should be taken out of any discourse. On the contrary, amnesty should be granted to the Nigerian Government especially to those from the criminal class masquerading as elites who unjustly appropriated oil & gas wells and other resources in Biafraland to themselves and their cohorts to the detriment of the masses. These robbers should be associated with amnesty for their economic criminality not the NDA.
As far as IPOB and the generality of Biafrans are concerned, the NDA is doing the right thing by demanding the freedom our people from the perpetually repressive Nigerian state. Unlike some groups pretending to be Biafran freedom fighters, the NDA and IPOB have a common ideology and objective which is the absolute liberation of the nation of Biafra from the British-contraption created by an alien called Frederick Lugard who is not even a black African. It defies logic to think that a white man can come all the way from Britain to create and name a country in already inhabited Africa for black people,
Ironically, most of the leaders of the compromized groups are speaking against the great work that the NDA are doing. These shameless scavenging Hausa-Fulani sponsored slaves in Biafraland have placed the needs of their stomach and their families above the overall national interest of the liberation of their people who are under the enslavement of the Nigerian Government in concert with the British Government who have never supported the liberation of any christian country in the world. The leaders of these obviously compromised groups have gone into hotel business, real estate industry, oil & gas extraction business and other profit-generating endeavours and have for long abandoned the quest for the freedom of the people of Biafra.
It is not a surprise therefore that these compromized groups have now come out to distance themselves from the genuine efforts of the NDA that is aimed at fulfilling the yearning and expectations of every Biafran. We reiterate that IPOB is totally and absolutely in support of the NDA as they march towards the unconditional liberation of our people from the evil grip of Nigerian Government. We plead with the NDA not to be discouraged by the comments and antics of these so-called leaders of these compromized groups and some other charlatans who parade themselves as freedom fighters. The NDA should know that the only ally they have now is IPOB under the leadership of Nnamdi Kanu.
IPOB is warning the extremist Nigerian Government of Buhari that should they invade any part of Biafraland, as intelligence indicate they are planning to, then IPOB will order every youth in Biafraland to join NDA to defend Biafraland. Muhammadu Buhari and his gangs massacred Biafrans in their millions at Owerri in 1968 but Biafrans will never allow such atrocity to be repeated on Biafraland ever again. We shall fight to the last man standing because Biafra is our life and the restoration of the nation of Biafra is a task that must be achieved.
IPOB wholeheartedly support the NDA as they work diligently and heroically towards the liberation of all parts of Biafraland from the Lugard created abomination called Nigeria.
Signed
Barrister Emma Nmezu
Dr. Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya
Spokespersons for IPOB
