"We have cut IPOB down to size"

The Federal Government says the secessionist group, Indigenous People of Biafra, has been cut down to size, adding that with its proscription by the South-East governors, the group is already running out of oxygen.


The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this during a chat with State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.

Mohammed said IPOB had metamorphosed into a band of thugs and had perpetrated several acts of violence which no reasonable government in the world could condone.

He said, “Let me state clearly that it is within the rights of individuals or groups to seek self-determination. But this pursuit has to be non-violent. Where any group crosses the line by engaging in violence, it risks being cut to size and that’s exactly what has happened to IPOB.

“I am not interested in the semantics or legality of troop’s deployment or the proscription of IPOB. All I know is that IPOB has engaged in terrorist activities such as: Setting up parallel military and paramilitary organisations, clashing with the national army and attempting to seize rifles from soldiers, using weapons such as machetes, molotov cocktails and sticks and mounting roadblocks to extort money from people, among others.

“To those who have engaged in semantics or legality, I ask: Which country in the world will tolerate those activities I have listed above? Which national army will look the other way when it is being attacked by a band of thugs?”