The Biafra Nations League, BnL, has condemned broadcast by former Niger Delta Militant Leader, Dokubo Asari urging the Igbos to kill all IPOB members in the South East, the BnL in a statement released by the Standing Committee of Senior Officials (SCSO), signed by the Chairman, Godstime Ntukidem urged the Igbos to ignore the former Ijaw Youth Council President, according to the Committee, no reasonable person would openly call for the execution of his brethren in the same struggle adding that Asari has failed to carry out his task as the Chairman of Biafra National Council and De Facto Customary Government which he was appointed to lead.
The SCSO of BnL said that they expected Asari to focus on enlightening the Ijaws on the need to support Biafra like other followers of BnL outside the Igbo area, Ntukidem lamented that many Ijaws have refused to identify with the Biafran struggle as they did during the civil war, he recalled how Ijaw youths accompanied a fractional IYC Leader to cause trouble at the Inauguration of Biafra National Council (BNC) Coalition in Yenagoa in 2019 where 100 of BnL members who were coming from Rivers State with four loaded Buses were arrested on the road after the IYC contacted the Police and also invaded the venue with Policemen and more than 10 Hilux, he said if not for the presence of the Police, that they would have been violence at the venue.
Ntukidem insisted that the Ijaw cannot stand alone, and the decision of the Ijaws does not bind on the entire South-South tribes.
“His kinsmen from Bayelsa were mobilized to attack us at the venue of the inauguration of BNC, if not for the arrest of our members who are indigenes of Rivers State mostly Igbo speaking they would have been trouble if they had arrived the venue, some thugs came there, and immediately the Police arrived with the IYC factional leader, although Asari had mobilized about 300 of his boys to the venue successfully because they know the destination, but he refused to disclose the destination to us, asking us to become by description, about four buses carrying the Rivers State indigenes of our members were rounded up at the Welcome to Bayelsa when they stopped to ask questions of their next direction.”
He said the Committee has carried out necessary consultations but where the group is having challenges is the Ijaw territory which believes that they are giants in the Niger Delta and are capable of surviving as a sovereign Ijaw nation.
“We are disappointed at his broadcast, nobody should brag about sabotaging his or her brother, right now, Kanu is in detention, he offended not just Asari, but many, including sidelining BnL who ensured that he was released during his initial arrest, as many people could recall how our loyalists in the Gulf of Guinea hijacked a Liberian ship to demand his release, but that doesn’t mean we should jubilate that he has been arrested again, people can see we are the one putting more pressure on our operational areas for his release. Tomorrow it could be the arrest of another Biafran agitator.
We condemn Asari’s call for the execution of IPOB members because majority Igbo youths identify more with IPOB than any other groups”.
Ntukidem admitted that IPOB has sidelined and disappointed many people who fought for Kanu’s release in 2015-2017, adding that Pro-Biafra groups ought to give listening ears to their supporters and allies and the ‘I don’t care attitude of IPOB leadership’.
A few days back, the Nigerian Army sealed off the Welcome to Bakassi entrance where the group reportedly seized control and hoisted the flag on November 8, 2021, following end to their ultimatum to release all Biafran detainees including the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr Nnamdi Kanu, the Cameroonian government in response deployed troops to the ceded part of Bakassi Peninsula to clamp down on separatist militants in the area.
