Middle-Belt, Southern Leaders Of Thought Reject IPOB Terrorist Status, Say Evidence Contradicts Such Tag

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Yesterday, Oct 5 2017, after rising from their 2nd Consultative Summit in Abuja, the Leaders of Thought from Middle-belt and Southern part of Nigeria condemned the tagging of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist organisation by the Federal Government.

Present in the meeting were Edwin Clark, Barnabas Gumade, Jerry Gana, Olu Falae, Tunde Ogbeha, Ayo Adebajo, Yinka Odumaki, Dan Suleiman and Stella Omu.

In the communique issued after the meeting,  they rejected the tagging of IPOB as a terrorist organization stating that available evidence on the activities of the group shows a contrary stance for the group.

"We reject the hasty tagging of IPOB as terrorist organisation in the face of contrary evidence", the communiqué stated.

The group maintained that quelling of civil unrest in a democracy remains the duty of the police, hence, the military has no business in the agitations going on in the country.

The group reminded the government that such deployments of soldiers to peaceful areas without due invitation from relevant local authorities is against federalism.

They went on to state that they do not welcome such military operation, neither in South west, south east nor south south, stating that it is a show of intimidation.

They said, "We call on the Federal Government to always exercise restraint in the deployment of troops in quelling civil agitations, which is the responsibility of the police in any democracy.

"Consequently, we call on the Federal Government to reconsider similar operations that the Army is embarking on in the South West and South South zones, which are peaceful areas.

"We do not need these exercises, which are seen largely as sheer intimidation and barring of fangs.

"Under federalism, you do not deploy troops to the federating units without the invitation of the affected local authorities.

"The federal Government must also employ dialogue above raw force in engaging dissension," the communiqué stated.

By Mazi Edozie