By Uche Amunike
President Buhari has lauded the synergy between security agencies and their operations against leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu and activist and Yoruba freedom fighter, Sunday Adeniyi Ademola popularly known as Sunday Igboho.
In a statement released by Spokesman and Media Adviser to the President, Garba Shehu, both individuals had inflicted pain and hardship on fellow citizens and as such, the synchronisation with which their arrests were executed was worth commending.
Shehu, in his statement, noted that Kanu and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leaders are known for murderous actions and virulent messages.
He confirmed that the International operation against Kanu resulted in his handover to the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, and subsequent repatriation.
He went on to say that the violence initiated by IPOB has led to hundreds of fatalities especially targeted at government assets and law enforcement agents.
‘There have been at last count, fifty separate violent attacks, heavily concentrated in the South-East, which heaped further hardship on our honest and hardworking citizens, preventing them from earning their livelihood and going about their normal lives’, he reiterated.
Shehu acknowledged that the government had been monitoring the activities of IPOB and had strong reasons to believe that their funding sources include proceeds of suspected illicit criminal activities.
The statement extolled the raid of the residence of Igboho,
‘who has also been conducting acts of terror and disturbing the peace under the guise of protecting fellow kinsmen’.
He added that his seditious utterances and antiques publicly expressed have steadily metamorphosed into very hurtful and vile laden speeches, maintaining that the government respects fundamental rights of citizens to free expression and recognizes it as a democratic tenet.
However, he continued, ‘any attempt to build an armoury coupled with plans either subtle or expressed to undermine our unity as a nation will not be condoned’.
‘Mr. President’s directives to Security Services regarding anyone seen to be carrying arms, particularly AK-47 are clear and require no further illumination’.
‘Assault weapons are not tools of peace loving people and as such, regardless of who they are and where they are from, the Security Agencies should treat them all the same’, he concluded.
Recall that weeks before his arrest, Igboho had warned the Federal government to stop security agents from raiding the South East.
He was clear about any attack on the people of the South East being an attack on the Yoruba nation.
In a statement released by his Media aide, Olayomi Koiki, he stated in clear terms that the Yoruba nation will repel any attacks on the South East by the Nigerian Army.
Part of the statement said, ‘We would like to inform the Federal Government of Nigeria that any attack on the South-East is an attack on the Yorubas’.
‘Biafra people have been targeted by the Nigeria Army and if there are any further attacks on them, we would have no other option but to support our brothers and sisters in Biafra land’.
