The Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Delta Safe (ODS), yesterday flashed agitators for Niger Delta Republic the red card, saying there is no room for their plan in the country.
ODS Commander Rear Admiral Joseph Okogie told the Adaka Boro Avengers (ABA), which is pushing for the republic, that the JTF would crush any separatist tendency.
Also yesterday, the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) distanced itself from the talks between the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and some Federal Government agents to end militancy in the Niger Delta and agitations for a separate country in the Southeast.
The group declared that its detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu would not renounce the agitation for Biafra for his freedom.
Okogie spoke after a five-hour meeting with component commanders of the ODS at the outfit’s headquarters in Igbogene in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
ABA caused a stir in the region, following its threat to declare Niger Delta Republic at the Kaiama home of the late Ijaw icon Isaac Adaka Boro, in Kolokuma-Opokuma area of the state last Monday.
IPOB, in a statement, by its spokesman, Emma Nmezu, and another official, Dr. Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya, said: “It is understandable that MEND and the federal government are scavenging for relevance from their moribund status but they should not use the sacred name of IPOB or its leader as a means of survival.
“MEND and the federal government can conveniently carry out their operation without dragging the name of IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu into that shenanigan, as we are not interested in their devilish acts.
“IPOB and their leader Mazi Kanu are in full support of any group of dedicated and hardcore freedom fighters such as the Niger Delta Avengers [NDA], as we share the same aspiration which is the liberation of our people.
“We have stated unequivocally and without any fear of contradiction that we are fully in support of the NDA as they embark on freeing themselves from the British criminality called Nigeria, a contraption led by a man that committed treason on December 31, 1983.
“What MEND and federal government must know is that Biafra is a spirit because Nnamdi Kanu, by the grace of God, brought spirituality into the agitation for Biafra independence.
“The fact that many people claiming to be fighting for the interest of the people has sold out in the past or that the so called elites engaged in the mortgaging of their soul to the devil does not mean the emergence of clean, conscientious and patriotic Biafrans is no longer possible.”
”A lot of people thought the agitation for Biafra was dead before the emergence of Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB, one thing remains certain things can never be the same after this. We assert that IPOB is not in the business of betrayal and we would die rather than renounce Biafra.
“The restoration of the nation of Biafra is not subject to negotiation, if there should be any form of negotiation at all, it must be centered on asset sharing between Nigeria and Biafra and on the payment of reparations for money stolen from Biafrans by Nigeria through the 1970 twenty pounds deal and other subsequent acts of thievery by Nigeria against Biafrans.
“We want to make it categorically clear that MEND and the federal government are strictly on their own and do not in any way, shape or form represents IPOB or the leader of IPOB, Mazi Kanu, when we say
“Biafra or Death”, and we meant every syllable of that phrase.
“Again, we reiterate that Nnamdi Kanu is not Ralph Uwazuruike and IPOB is not MASSOB. Therefore, anybody thinking that our leader will renounce Biafra is certifiably mad. For both IPOB and their leader, Nnamdi Kanu, it is either we get Biafra or we die getting Biafra.
There is no middle ground”.
”MEND and the federal government team of fake negotiators are hereby warned to desist from deceiving the public with their misinformation and betrayal of the Biafran cause”. (The Nation)
