Attack on Ekweremadu: Group vows to set up task force to identify IPOB members at Nigerian airports

A group of concerned Nigerians, under the aegis of One United Nigeria Agenda, has warned members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the diaspora not to venture returning back to the country as a task force has been set up to screen them at various international airports.

The group gave this threat at a press conference by its President, Comrade Atumeyi Victor, in Abuja on Thursday to address IPOB’s spate of attacks on Nigerians, particularly ex-Senate President Ike Ekweremadu.

According to the One United Nigeria, this has become paramount to curtail the excesses of the terrorist group who appear hell-bent on damaging the image of the country in the eyes of the international community.

Amongst other things, the proposed task force will nab those responsible for the attack on Ekweremmadu as soon as they set foot in Nigeria and hand them over to the Police.

The group added that there will be profiling, arrest, processing and handing over to relevant security agencies for prosecution irrespective of whether the IPOB member has carried out any attack or not.

In a bid to facilitate the capture of fugitive leader Nnamdi Kanu, the One United Nigeria group, therefore, announced modalities for crowdfunding a N100 million bounty.

Read full statement below:

Gentlemen of the press, we are here addressing this press conference today because our expectations were not met by the federal government of Nigeria following its tame response to the attack on the former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), in Nuremberg, Germany.

For a government that recognized IPOB as a terrorist group to the extent that it proscribed its activities across Nigeria, we had expected that all those that attacked Senator Ekweremadu would have been repatriated to Nigeria by now. Returning these criminals to Nigeria will allow for them to stand trial for their crime, which was motivated by their terrorist agenda. Attacking the senator was intended to scare political office holders in Nigeria from travelling abroad to pursue the interest of the country.

To show that we are right, the failure of the federal government to repatriate the IPOB terrorists gave them the confidence to announce reward for information about the travel plans of senior government officials of the country. They even boasted about how they will use such information to stage other attacks.

We note the ploy of making it appear as if IPOB members are only interested in attacking politicians of Igbo origin but we refuse to accept this cheap trick. Irrespective of their ethnic identifications, all senators of the Federal Republic are Nigerians, attacking anyone of them, even where the attack was carried out by his own kinsmen, is the same as attacking the National Assembly – the symbol of Nigeria’s democracy.

Gentlemen of the press, if it is madness that is inspired IPOB’s attack on senator Ekweremadu, it is now apparent that the madness has gone beyond the kind that is treatable because they have not dared to include the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on their hit list. The implication of this is that they will in the foreseeable future begin to launch attacks against the interests of Nigeria abroad and other Nigerians.

It is a dangerous situation that cannot be allowed to continue because of the grievous consequences that will follow. Not only would it not be allowed to continue, there should also be punishments for those that brought about it in the first place. The message must be sent out in unequivocal terms that even where the government becomes limited for diplomatic reasons Nigerians will rise up to defend their country against terrorists the same way they halted Boko Haram’s ascendancy.

We therefore use this opportunity to warn the IPOB members abroad not to contemplate visiting home. This warning is necessary because we have set up a task force with the mandate to compile a dossier of IPOB members to be used by another task force responsible for enforcement, with the mandate to arrest all those responsible for the attack on Ekweremmadu any day they set foot in Nigeria. We will of course hand over such criminals to the police after they must have been processed.

The relevant task force will also collate names of IPOB members that would be matched to photo identities for publication and display at all international airports and arrival ports in Nigeria. This is to ensure that those who take the citizens of Nigeria for granted never escape justice anytime they visit Nigeria. One United Nigeria Agenda will ensure that IPOB terrorists are treated like Boko Haram suspects since they have decided to internationalize their acts of terrorism and taking their irresponsible behaviour cross international borders.

This treatment shall be extended to any known members of the terrorist group resident abroad and travelling into Nigeria. The profiling, arrest, processing and handing over to the police for prosecution shall be irrespective of whether the IPOB member has carried out any attack or not. Being a member of the group is enough grounds to be treated as attempting to re-introduce IPOB into Nigeria after he terrorist organization has been purged out of the system.

Permit us to inform you that One United Nigeria Agenda is in the process of fine-tuning modalities for crowdfunding a N100 million bounty for any individual, group, soldier of fortune that can arrest and ship IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu back to Nigeria to answer the case he has before he court. Being a fugitive from justice, Kanu has been the chief instigator of violence against Nigerians by IPOB miscreants. We believe that cutting off the head of the serpent will kill the monster of IPOB’s terrorism.

We are also working on another fund to drive advocacy to the countries with the worst case of IPOB infestation with the objective of holding sensitization sessions in this countries to empower them with information how to tackle the IPOB problem. A local version of this advocacy is also in the works and will involve making contacts with the diplomatic missions of the affected countries.

Our belief is that this advocacy will help the world, particularly the affected countries, to now better understand and appreciate that the entire array of crimes that “Nigerians” are being blamed for are exclusively IPOB oriented. Crimes like drug-running, gun-running, human trafficking and fraud are being committed by IPOB members to raise funds for their group’s terrorist activities.

We believe it was divine providence that made IPOB to overstep its bounds because so many facts that were once hidden about the cause of the bad reputation that bedevilled Nigeria are now known to the world. That source is called IPOB. We have successfully dealt with its local component, which is why we will not allow any variant of the virus called IPOB to be reintroduced to the country by way of their members travelling into the country.