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Biafra protesters storm Westminster as Buhari meets the Queen

Published

7 years ago

April 19, 2018

SOME Biafran protesters yesterday demonstrated at the Pall Mall Street, Westminster, United Kingdom, about 650 metres from Buckingham Palace, as President Muhammadu Buhari was meeting British Prime minister Theresa May, Queen Elizabeth II and other heads of state.The protesters, among other things, requested the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and a referendum on the fate of Biafra.

While the protest was ongoing, the president and other heads of states were being received by May, the British PM and Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, at the official opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM 2018.

No amount of blackmail can stop Biafra

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, yesterday also insisted that no amount of blackmail would stop it from achieving the Biafra Republic.

The leadership of IPOB was reacting to what it called the ‘fabricated and fake statement’ credited to someone who claimed to be a traditional ruler of an autonomous community in Mbaise, Imo State, who described the ongoing IPOB Biafra project as a fraud.

The said traditional ruler was said to have made the statement in a national newspaper..

IPOB, in a statement, said the publication was an attempt to poison the minds of Biafrans and divert their attention from seeking their freedom from Nigeria.’

IPOB media and publicity secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful said the alleged traditional ruler from Mbaise who was quoted in the publication does not exist.

He said: “There is no traditional ruler or person of interest from Mbaise residing in Calabar who goes by the name quoted in the said story. This is another agent provocateur publication in the mold of the equally fake ‘Okwudili’ the non-existent, phantom Biafra ‘leader’, designed to mislead the masses into thinking that certain Igbo traditional rulers are against the current IPOB- led agitation for Biafra independence. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it is a black lie.

“It is highly unethical for a national publication to facilitate the dissemination of what is in essence, a fake news, all in an effort to weaken IPOB or test the resolve of our global followership. The article was calculated and designed to impugn the integrity of the struggle for Biafra liberation championed by IPOB and led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

“Findings by IPOB intelligence unit and family members in and around the five communities that make up Mbaise have conclusively determined that nobody with the name of the said traditional ruler ever existed, talk less of being crowned a traditional ruler. “Those behind this fabrication must know that Biafrans are highly intelligent people and internationally proven to be the most intelligent race in the black world. Therefore, these lies peddled by enemies of Biafra freedom will never hold water or gain any traction.

“It is now very clear to all that IPOB remains the potent force it has always been, despite the horrors of Operation Python Dance and the illegal abduction of our leader, hence the concerted effort to degrade our movement through smear campaigns and outright lies. Nothing can stop IPOB.. Biafra must be restored.”

Ohanaeze not part of Buhari’s endorsement for 2019

Meantime, the pan Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has disassociated itself from the proposed endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari for 2019 elections by some Igbo groups working under the umbrella of Ohanaeze.

Ohanaeze explained that endorsement for any candidate including Buhari will be after wide consultations.

But the group also said its position on the purported endorsement did not mean that it was against the candidacy of President Buhari in the forthcoming elections since he has the constitutional right for a second term.

Chairman of Ohanaeze, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, chapter, Abuja, Odozi Nwodozi in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, described those planning the purported endorsement as renegades from alleged disbanded Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing as well as the Women Wing.

The statement read: “It has come to the knowledge of Ohanaeze Ndigbo FCT chapter that renegades from the disbanded Okechukwu Isiguzoro-led Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing and the Callista Adimachukwu Ohanaeze Ndigbo Women are presently in Abuja for a purported endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari for the 2019 presidency.

“This shameful exercise which is being coordinated by an Enugu-state born head of a federal government parastatal is the crystallization of the vituperations of these discredited groups on the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo for the past one month.

“It should be noted that while Ndigbo are not against the candidacy of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 polls, since he has the constitutional right for a second term, endorsement for any candidate including Buhari will be after wide consultations.

“However, it is important to let the public know that these characters engaging in the exercise are not qualified to do it as their mandates have since expired at the dissolution of their groups. And elections for both organs are scheduled for Friday 20th and Saturday 21st April 2018 in Enugu where new leadership will emerge.

“For the Igbo persons in the present administration who have been financing and orchestrating the macabre dance of the disgraced youth and women leaders for the past two months, their desperation for relevance and display of grip of the Igbo socio-political structure should be guided, else they exhaust the little credence they have left in Igbo land.”