Proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has denied the social media report by the Nigerian Army over the killing of their members at Lilu forest in Ihiala Local government area of Anambra state.
News Echo reports that the Director Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu on Monday in a press statement noted that “Troops of the Nigerian Army (NA) in a joint operations conducted with other security agencies have dislodged a notorious stronghold of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB) and its armed affiliate, Eastern Security Network (ESN) at Lilu Forest in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State.
Refuting the claim, Media and Publicity Secretary for IPOB, Comrade Emma Powerful, in a press release to newsmen on Wednesday said “We the global movement and family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under the command and leadership of our great leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to reiterate, that IPOB and ESN operatives have no camp in Lilu in Ihiala LGA of Anambra State. We are not militants and criminals and don’t need any camp in Ihiala LGA. We are identifiable and we are all over Biafra land and IPOB branches in the Diaspora”.
“Nigeria security agencies are using the hatred they have on the people of Biafra particularly IPOB and ESN members to unleash cruelty on the people living in these communities where they suspect that criminals are taking refuge”.
“If criminals take refuge in any community in Biafra land, that doesn’t make them IPOB members or ESN operatives. We have also not said there are no more criminal gangs in Biafra land just like every other country even in the advanced Western nations. But we won’t accept the tagging of every criminal element found in Biafra as IPOB member or ESN operative”.
Recall that some of these criminals were already mentioned by IPOB leadership sometime during a broadcast. IPOB leadership said these criminals were unleashing mayhem on innocent citizens in some communities. Some of these hoodlums were a creation of wicked politicians in their desperation to discredit IPOB and ESN.
The statement further reads that “It is therefore, wicked and annoying that the Nigeria Army, Police and DSS will keep dishing out falsehood against IPOB and ESN by claiming that these criminals when arrested, are IPOB and ESN members. The so-called camp where these said criminals were arrested does not belong to ESN. They should stop lying against us”.
