The leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has claimed unfair treatment of Igbo by successive governments led to IPOB’s agitation for the Sovereign State of Biafra.
Kanu alleged that the Muhammadu Buhari government and the All Progressives Congress had aggravated the situation, hence IPOB decided to lead the fight for Igbo separation.
In a paper he presented to the European Union Parliament on Tuesday obtained by The PUNCH, Kanu said, “After the civil war, Biafrans slowly rebuilt their world, but as far as Nigeria was concerned, they were not and never had been Biafrans, but were Nigerians from South-East or Igbo-speaking Nigerians.
“The Biafran war was airbrushed out of the Nigerian consciousness. Biafrans could only whisper about their loss. Joining the global Biafran diaspora was one option for those who could get out of the country; others remained in Biafraland, their Biafran identity amongst themselves, undiminished.”
He added, “Nigeria leaders, particularly the present administration of Buhari, continue to prioritise crushing assertions of Biafra identity. It has been the order of the day as even peacefully commemorating the war risks arrest, detention prohibited ill-treatment or being shot.”
He said the military operations in the South-East, Operation Python Dance, were laden with intimidation, systemic human rights violations carried out by the state with impunity. Kanu said IPOB was targeted for destruction.
He said, “Nigeria has always been a fiction because it was created for British administrative and colonial continence in 1914, having drawn together alleged desperate people into one entity.”
Meanwhile, the group has said it is not afraid of the criminal complaint lodged against Kanu by Mr Thomas Carroll of GAYLORD POPP, LLC, acting on behalf of the Incorporated Trustees of Make Nigeria Better Initiative, at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.