By Charles Igbo
IPOB Has Declared War On Nigeria – ACF
The President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Professor George Obiozor, has said that the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, does not speak for the Igbo when its leadership speaks.
Obiozor spoke just as the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, accused IPOB of a declaration of war in the country, and asked Igbo leaders to call them to order.
Obiozor spoke during an Arise Television programme on Friday, January 7, 2022.
He said that the IPOB anger is an accumulated one, but that while the anger of its members and that of most youths nationwide is understandable, IPOB does not speak for the Igbo.
Obiozor chided Northern Groups who attribute anything said by IPOB to the Igbo Nation, thereby, encouraging Northern youths to make inciting statements against the Igbo. He, particularly, pointed out when Northern youths asked all Igbo in the North to leave the region.
Obiozor: “Take it from me and, it is the right statement, IPOB doesn’t speak for the Igbo, and that is the truth.
“To be very candid with you, the IPOB anger is an accumulated anger based on perceived or real injustice against Ndigbo for so long.
“We understand their anger, and the anger of many youths across the country.
However, the truth of the matter is that they are not mandated to speak for Ndigbo.
“The Northern Groups that are making the statements are unfortunate because we don’t respond when their youths in their youthful exuberance make certain comments like they did before that all Igbo must leave the North.”
But the ACF has just accused IPOB of declaring a war in the country over IPOB’s recent ban of the National Anthem in schools and the transportation of livestock to the South-east.
In retaliation, a Northern group has, also, said the North would no longer buy anything brought to the region from the South-east.
The National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Emmanuel Yawe, was reacting to the plan of the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria to ban the movement of foodstuffs from the North to the South-east over the IPOB ban.
Yawe said Nigeria was not at war and appealed to all well meaning Nigerians to call IPOB to order.
This will not be the first time the Union would embark on a blockade of foodstuffs to the South-east over INEC threat to ban the transportation of Cattle to the South-east.
Said Yawe: “We have appealed to this Union in the past when their members were attacked and some killed, and their property destroyed due to no fault of theirs.”
The blockade, at the time, triggered the skyrocketing in the prices of foodstuffs I’m the South.
In the instant case, Yawe said: “The concerns of the Union and their fears are justified. Somebody should call IPOB to order. We are not at war. We are still one country and not at war. Their pronouncements amount to an open declaration of war.”
There has been no reaction either from the Federal Government, or from Ohanaeze since the ban placed by IPOB on the National Anthem and the transportation of foodstuffs and Cattle from the North to the South-east.
