The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has reacted to the statement credited to elder statesman and former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen TY Danjuma, who called for self-defense against Fulani herdsmen.
Danjuma, while speaking on Saturday at the maiden convocation ceremony of Taraba sSate University in Jalingo, called on Nigerians to defend themselves against ethnic cleansing.
According to him, it was regrettable that the Nigeria Army was no more neural in the fight against terrorism in the country, stressing that “the Army collude, aide and provide shield to terrorist activities.”
Reacting to his observation, IPOB in a statement by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, faulted the former military boss for refusing to speak when the problem started.
IPOB said the killings allegedly orchestrated by herdsmen escalated because people like Danjuma refused to speak, but were rather busy vilifying its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
The statement noted that Danjuma only re-echoed what its leader, Kanu had been saying over the atrocities being meted on its members by the Nigerian Army.
He said, “What Mazi Nnamdi Kanu said in 2014 is being re-echoed across the political landscape of Nigeria by no other than the very influential Lt. Gen. TY Danjuma, who can be rightly classified as part of the northern ruling elite.
“Every categorical statement, prediction and utterance of our leader has come to pass. What is happening before our eyes today was foretold by our leader many years back and had those in power in Abuja listened to him rather than lock him up without trial, thousands of innocent lives could have been saved across Nigeria.
“We state without any equivocation that all those killed by marauding Fulani herdsmen and the Nigerian military that provides them covert support died in vain because people like TY Danjuma initially supported the oppressors and vilified Mazi Nnamdi Kanu instead of paying careful attention to what he was saying.
“The same way the likes of TY Danjuma from the Middle Belt have woken up to the reality of the failed state that Nigeria has become, hopefully, so will South East governors, Ohaneze Ndigbo and PANDEF do in the coming months. Assuming they will take a leaf from Danjuma and have the courage to speak the truth as boldly as Danjuma has done. Going by their previous slavish antecedents, it remains doubtful they will ever do so because of their lowly status in the affairs of Nigeria.
“The question we are asking is why didn’t Danjuma use places like Yemen Libya, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, etc to cite as an example? He mentioned the same country as Kanu did because he can now see clearly where Nigeria is heading to. This implies that these same people who publicly condemned the style of agitation of IPOB were secretly listening to our leader all the time but stubbornly refused to do something about the injustices he was preaching against.
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu said that Fulanis will kill, rape, burn, maim, abduct innocent citizens and nothing will happen to them. Today are Fulani herdsmen not killing with impunity with nothing being done to stop them.
“People should swallow their pride and come out to acknowledge that Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB were right all along. They should not be ashamed to apologise for their shortsighted and lack of vision. Till date, no single religious prophet or seer in Nigeria and beyond has come close to matching the accuracy of Kanu’s predictions about events that are now unfolding in Nigeria.
“We are glad the world can testify that our leader and the movement he leads means well for ordinary people in Nigeria because an independent Biafra means freedom for all.”
