Secessionist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has taken a swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari after the latter urged western allies to designate the group as a terrorist organisation.
The group, in a statement on Wednesday by Emma Powerful, noted that anyone who tags it as a terror or proscribed group needs to be examined at a psychiatrist's hospital.
It further warned politicians in the South-East region to stop associating it with criminal acts perpetrated by unknown gunmen, alleging that the same politicians who are linking IPOB to criminal activities are the ones fuelling the crimes in the region.
IPOB said it is a disciplined, focused freedom movement that would rather not involve in criminal activities as this would delay the actualisation of the independent Biafran Nation.
It further alleged that the Nigerian police, the army and the DSS agents are the key actors in the kidnapping and unlawful killings going on in Anambra, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi and Enugu states.
The group said, “Following the incessant abductions, killings, humiliation and sponsorship of all manner of criminalities in the Eastern region for quite some time now, IPOB reminds politicians that the time has come for them to turn a new leaf, desist from making themselves available to the enemies of our people to use as tools of destabilising the Eastern Region and cause anarchy in our land or be ready to face the consequences.
“Men of perdition must stop linking IPOB with their evil actions because we are not morally bankrupt as they the political harlots they are.
”IPOB is a very disciplined, very focused freedom movement. We have no business with political criminals and we do not have any business with criminality because if IPOB engages in any form of criminality, we will be delaying the coming of an Independent Biafran Nation and we certainly have no intention or desire to delay the freedom and liberty of the Biafran people.
“IPOB has no plans neither are we complicit in the political killings, kidnapping of religious leaders and business people going on in our territory but these evil politicians working for the Nigerian government are behind and sponsoring all criminalities going-on and we must be held accountable.
“We have published names of some of those politicians and their thugs responsible for these criminalities happening now in the region as well as the Nigerian Army harbouring in their barracks Fulani terrorists masquerading as herdsmen to attack our land and kidnap for ransom.
“If we are terrorists, the European Union (EU) cannot afford to allow IPOB to demonstrate in their headquarters in Brussels in Belgium. Therefore, anybody or media who reports IPOB as terror group or proscribed group should purely examine themselves in the psychiatrist centre.
“We are not interested in the selection process called Nigeria election, yet we cannot afford to allow anyone or group behind the killings and kidnap in our land to continue.
“Politicians in the Eastern region must desist from evil acts such as using thugs to attack their perceived political stumbling block with the evil intention that IPOB would be blamed without investigation. Whosoever allows himself/herself as willing tools in the hands of politicians would regret such action soon."