- If such attacks took place at all and along the routes mentioned by the drivers, then they must have been carried out by northern herdsmen-terrorists in nearby forests along those routes – IPOB
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has reacted to alleged attacks on northern truck drivers in the South East by its members, describing the allegation as “fallacious and a sponsored protest staged in the Northern city of Jos, Plateau State.”
A group under the aegis of Members of the National Union Of Road Transport Workers (Heavy Truck), Plateau State Council, on Sunday – yesterday, March 2 – protested against what they described as incessant attacks on their trucks and killing of their members along roads in the South East by IPOB.
They alleged that in the past eight years, truck drivers from northern Nigeria have been consistently targeted, killed and their trucks destroyed or burnt, while transporting goods to the SouthEast.
But reacting to the allegation, IPOB described it as fallacious and the handiwork of the Nigerian government and “its sponsored driver-terrorists”.
“The false accusations by the so-called NURTW truck drivers at Jos, Plateau State are another calculated blackmail and fallacious propaganda against IPOB.
“For a decade since IPOB started, we have been confronted with various State sponsored blackmail and media propaganda aimed at portraying IPOB as a violent movement, but as God lives on his throne, IPOB has surmounted all the accusations and lies against us by the government and blackmail including kidnappings, extrajudicial murders, and political assassinations that were tagged on IPOB,” the pro-Biafra group riposted in a statement issued by its media and publicity secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful.
“What exactly is the crime of IPOB against the Nigerian government and the other state actors in Nigeria? IPOB’s only crime against the Nigerian State is our demand for self-determination via a referendum. Instead of dialoguing with IPOB and our leader Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu, the Nigerian State (constantly) deploys various covert measures, including sponsoring insecurity and violent crimes in the South East to blackmail and demonize IPOB.”
Insisting that “IPOB and ESN members are not violent and do not engage in attacking or killing people,” the statement said since IPOB could not not confirm that any such attacks and or killing of truck drivers in the South-East Region took place, as peddled by the Plateau State NURTW heavy duty truck drivers, “we assume that such a claim by the sponsored protesting drivers in Plateau State is unfounded.”
“Let’s assume that such an incident happened, why would IPOB members or ESN operatives attack innocent truck drivers conveying goods to our region? Do the so-called attacked truck drivers pose any threat to the IPOB movement? IPOB members have not attacked those who pose threats to the Biafra struggle in the South-East Region, why, then, would they attack innocent truck drivers supplying goods to our region?” the statement queried.
“Those who sponsored the touts that they called truck drivers in Plateau State to falsely accuse IPOB of attacking and killing their members in the South East should know that they are also the same people that sponsored insecurity in the South-East. All the sponsored blackmail and propaganda do not move us a bit. But if such a thing happened, we condemn it.”
According to the truck drivers, the dangerous routes along which their members are usually attacked are Enugu to Lokpanta, Lokpanta to Okigwe, and Okigwe to Umuahia town.
“The public should recall that these named routes are the same routes about which the IPOB had raised alarm in the past about, where there are hiding places for (herdsmen-terrorists) who routinely collude with soldiers of northern extraction at the infamous military checkpoints along those routes to kidnap our people for ransom,” the statement by Powerful recalled.
“Many road users have fallen victim to the (kidnapper-herdsmen) on those routes. Therefore, if they said that there were attacks on truck drivers along those routes, then the attacks must have been carried out by northern (herdsmen-terrorists) and bandits operating in that axis but certainly not by IPOB/ESN.
“Nigerians know that there are many confirmed cases of northern (herdsmen-terrorists) kidnapping on the said routes, including the kidnap of a Methodist Church Bishop.
“Moreover, it would be recalled that Abia State Governor Dr. Alex Otti some time ago discovered a mass grave very close to the Hausa-Fulani cattle market at Lokpanta. Instead of the rented Northern truck drivers to tell the truth, that they are being attacked by their fellow Northern terrorists and bandits along the dangerous routes, they falsely accuse IPOB as responsible. IPOB is not violent and will never be stupid as to attack trucks supplying food items to and from the South East Region. We are not bandits.
“IPOB is peaceful and a people-oriented freedom movement for Biafra restoration. We are too disciplined to venture into such criminality when we are fighting criminality in our region. The rented touts that call themselves truck drivers should tell their sponsors that their agenda is dead on arrival.
“There are regular terrorist attacks in Northern Nigeria by Fulani terrorists and bandits without media attention. But in desperation to blackmail IPOB and Ndigbo, the Nigerian government routinely contracts different groups to accuse IPOB of one form of violence or another.
“We are certain that the Nigerian government rented the so-called truck drivers in the North to use their false accusations of attacks on their members as an excuse to increase the militarization of the South-East Region. No amount of blackmail, military onslaughts, forceful disappearances, and extrajudicial executions will make IPOB retreat from demanding Biafra’s self-determination and a UN supervised referendum.”
“IPOB members are not violent terrorists. We are innocent of all the State-sponsored accusations of violence in the South East Region,” the statement by Powerful surmised.
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