The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has denied ordering the killing of innocent citizens to be used for charms and fortification.
The group added that its leader, Nnamdi Kanu has never authorised the killing of innocent civilians or security agents.
IPOB said this in its reaction to the confession of Emeoyiri Uzoma Benjamin, also known as Onye Army, that Kanu ordered him to kill people for charms.
The suspect, Onye Army, nabbed by the Imo State Police Command said the IPOB leader also asked him to abduct and kill 10 girls to make protective charms.
IPOB said, “The so-called Onye Army said he joined ESN in 2019 while ESN was established on December 12th, 2020 it exposed them that they coached him to be talking rubbish statements against ESN, IPOB, and Nnamdi Kanu.”
According to the statement by the group’s spokesman, Emma Powerful released on Sunday, Onye Army was used by the Department of the State Services (DSS) to make false statements against Kanu who has been in DSS custody since last Tuesday.
The pro-Biafra separatist group said in the statement, “We state without ambiguities that our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, an ardent believer in God and an adherent of the Jewish faith does not believe in bloodshed and never asked anyone to kill to be fortified. He doesn’t believe in fetish powers and has openly preached against such ungodly practice.”
Powerful maintained that IPOB’s goal is certain to actualise Biafra while its militia wing was established to resist Fulani killer herdsmen in South-East and South-South regions and other places where Biafra supporters find themselves.
The statement reads: “The attention of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by our great and indomitable leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has been drawn to the fallacious claims by one man who claimed to be Eastern Security Network (ESN) Commander, and claiming that our leader commanded him to kill security agents.
“He also shamelessly claimed that 10 girls were killed to prepare charms to fortify him which are false statements forced by the DSS to make such unfounded statements against ESN, IPOB, and our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The so-called Onye Army said he join ESN in 2019 while ESN was established on December 12th, 2020. It exposed them that they coached him to be talking rubbish statements against ESN, IPOB, and Nnamdi Kanu.
“We want to make it clear that the purported ESN Commander is not known to us and we discovered that he is a mole planted by the government and security agencies into ESN. We know our commanders and they know us. The so-called man must be one of the criminals recruited by the Department of State Services to infiltrate ESN but our gallant men were at alert and smarter than the DSS.
“It is obvious that the so-called ESN Commander and his likes were the saboteurs planted by the DSS to assassinate our gallant Ikonso. After killing Ikonso, they are now trying to concoct a tale to implicate our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. We are not surprised that Nigeria took back their mole after the death of Ikonso the unit commander whom the so-called Onye Army spied over before his death.
“This Onye Army was nowhere to be seen after the death of Ikonso, where did he get the information that our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu gave the order for 2,000 heads to bury Ikonso because he was not in the camp again from that day he gave Ikonso out to Nigeria’s security service, and can he provide the parents of those thirteen virgins he was mentioned during his interrogation? Nigerian security agencies must stop using fake news and propaganda to demoralise IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, and ESN because we don’t kill (people) who are not terrorists.
“We are not however surprised that now that the Nigeria security has abducted our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and put him in custody, they will sponsor all manner of criminals to see if they can implicate him and puncture his global reputation. The question every sane person will be asking is: why now that our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is in custody that the so-called ESN Commander is making this ridiculous confessional statement?
“The Nigerian Security apparatus are shopping for compromised witnesses for their unfounded accusations levelled against our leader just as they did in 2015 when they arrested him the first time and they will fail in this their new project as they failed then in 2015.”
He continued, “IPOB and ESN do not also kill people to get powers. Our faith and values abhor such superstition. How can we be killing the same people we are putting our lives on the line to defend and liberate? It sounds very stupid! We are not Fulani herdsmen and bandits who bathe with human blood.
“Members of the public should disregard such claims. The DSS is only trying but in vain to implicate our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu so that they can establish grounds to convict him but they will not succeed. ESN was only established to defend our ancestral land against terrorists and bandits ravaging our communities. The killing of security agents wasn’t part of its mandate.
“It should also be noted that ESN is not unknown gunmen created by security agents to create the wrong impression that ESN was killing security agents. We made these explanations before but people never believed us. Now it has become obvious why the Nigerian security agencies were killing in the name of unknown gunmen and blaming it on IPOB and ESN just to justify their continued extra-judicial killing of our people.
“This was how a police officer killed five persons in Enugu recently and was blaming it on unknown gunmen if not that luck ran out on him and one of his victims survived to tell the truth. God exposed him and his atrocities, otherwise, they would have pointed accusing fingers at ESN or IPOB.
“We pity DSS because they have failed with this latest episode on arrival because ESN doesn’t kill anybody unless you are a terrorist. ESN was inaugurated to chase Fulani terrorists rampaging our farms and villages, not police or army. Our leader only believes in self-defence when we are attacked without provocation, and self-defence is legal and a fundamental right. It doesn’t matter who the attacker may be, once one is attacked without provocation the victim has the right to defend himself/herself.
“We are calling on human rights organisations, UN, US, EU, AU, Australia, Canada, Israel, Britain, Russia, France, Japan and other Western and civilised countries in the world that ESN and IPOB do not kill innocent citizens because they were not set up for that purpose. The ESN was set up to drive away armed Fulani terrorists who took over our forests and farmlands thereby preventing our mothers from cultivating their farmland. Nigeria’s security agencies are institutions of liars designed to concoct falsehood against innocent citizens. This is their trademark.”
