A pro-Biafra group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, on Thursday, distanced itself from the killing of eight security personnel by gunmen on Tuesday in the Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State.
Gunmen had attacked and slain security personnel including soldiers, policemen, and men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, were set ablaze by the hoodlums who attacked their patrol vans.
In a statement on Thursday by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, IPOB said, “Such reckless attacks and shedding of blood are not needed to achieve Biafra freedom in our territory.”
While distancing itself from the attack, IPOB claimed “the Federal Government knows those behind this latest attack on security personnel.
“They shouldn’t feign ignorance or claim to be surprised because they are working with the perpetrators of that unnecessary attack in order to blackmail IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu.”
Powerful claimed that when IPOB began its separatist agitation in 2012, its campaign was peaceful “until the Federal Government started sponsoring splinter groups in order to blackmail IPOB and Kanu.”
“Today, the monsters they have spoon-fed are consuming them. We in IPOB for years have been shouting about the evil plan of the Federal Government towards IPOB’s peaceful agitation, which is simply demanding for a referendum date for the Biafran people to determine their own fate as Indigenous people,” Powerful said.
