IPOB Members Gathering Formations In Edo State – Police DIG
Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) in charge of Operation Restore Peace in Southsouth geo-political zone, Moses Jitoboh, has disclosed that members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) are gathering in Edo State.
He revealed the IPOB members were secretly meeting at Igbanke, Ubiaja, Iguelaba, Igueben, Okhiahe and Ologbo in Edo State.
Jitoboh spoke in Benin at the launch of operation restore peace in the Southsouth zone.
He noted Edo and Bayelsa were enjoying relative peace in Nigeria, while stressing residents must not allow IPOB members to come in and scuttle the peace with secession messages.
South East Governors to sign May 30 Biafra Memorial Day into law- S’E Governors Forum
The DIG asked the residents of the communities where the harbingers were holding their meetings to always report them to the police for urgent attention, pointing out it would be better to nip the IPOB members’ activities in the bud than allowing them to grow beyond control in the state.
He said his mission in the crude oil and gas-rich zone was to restore peace to it, reiterating that President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the operation restore peace in the troubled Southsouth and Southeast zones, with him being in charge of the Southsouth zone.
Jitoboh, while reacting to the call by stakeholders to profile persons recruited into the vigilance groups in Edo state, asked Edo Commissioner of Police, Phillip Ogbadu, to work in synergy with the heads of the groups to remove the bad eggs.
The police chief noted that policing Edo was not an easy task, while stressing that there was the need for the police to continue to work-hand-in-hand with the vigilance members, in order to ensure a lasting peace in the state.
The Only Person Safe in this Country is Buhari- SSA to Bayelsa Gov Says’ Got Arrested
The Department of State Security, DSS has arrested an aide to the Governor of Bayelsa state for “inciting the public against President Muhammadu Buhari,” .
According to PoliticsNigeria, Kemepadei Bodmas, a Senior Special Assistant on new Media to Governor Duoye Diri, was arrested on Tuesday in Bayelsa state.
We also gathered that the arrest is in connection to inciting statements released by the Governor’s aide on social media. In the video seen by our reporter, Bodmas stated that the country is no longer safe.
“This country is no longer safe. The only person safe in this country is President Muhammadu Buhari and the only reason is that he understands that the country is not safe and so therefore has isolated himself.”
“My fellow Nigerians nothing is working in this country. The security architecture of this country has fallen. We don’t know our left, we don’t know our right. We don’t know where we are going as a people,” he said in the 28 seconds video.
Kemepadei’s case is similar to that of Salihu Tanko Yakasai, who was sacked for criticising President Muhammadu Buhari over the nation’s problems of Insecurity.
Further findings by this paper reveal that Kemepadei is a loyalist of Niger-Delta warlord, Government Tompolo and was actively involved in protests against the Niger-Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
Igbere Tv
CONSTITUTION SUSPENSION: AGF Malami Reacts
Abubakar Malami, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation has denied media reports that he has written a memo to President Buhari advising that the constitution be suspended and Marshall law declared to tackle the security situation of the country.
People Gazette had in an exclusive report reproduced by BVI Channel1 1 online, alleged that in a leaked secret memo that emanated from the Office of the AGF, recommended to the president that the some provisions of the Constitution particularly section 24 that deals with fundamental human rights be suspended and Marshall law declared to enable the FG deal with the security situation in the country.
In his response, Malami in a statement signed by Umar Jibrilu Gwandu the Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations denied the allegation describing it as a fabrication and insisting that the AGF stands for constitutional democracy.
The complete statement reads:
“The attention of the Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has been drawn to a false and fictitious report alleging that there was a secret memo emanating from the Office to the Presidency.
“General publics are hereby asked to disregard the media report as fabrications of anti-constitutional democratic stability in Nigeria. Malami remains a true democrat who believes in rules of law and tenant of democracy and Constitutional order.
“The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice is a constitutionally recognised one with its role and responsibilities embedded in the constitution.
“It is antithetical to common sense to think that the holder of such coveted Office as the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice will stoop to what was printed by the media.
“The Government does not operate in secrecy as it is not a clandestine operation. Hence, Malami discharges his constitutionally recognized mandates in compliance with principles of transparency, openness and accountability.
Twitter is a Suspect in Biafra Agitation- Presidency
Presidency has revealed that it’s suspecting the activities of the social media giant, Twitter, following its decision to delete President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet referencing the civil war.
Recall that Buhari had in a series of tweets on his verified Twitter handle, @Mbuhari, tweeted: “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.
Following several complaints, Twitter deleted the tweet, stating: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules”.
Reacting to the development, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, accused Twitter of double standard.
Mohammed said the social media giant has conveniently ignored inciting tweets by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and his cohorts.
He said Twitter ignored Kalu’s remarks that encouraged the killing of Police personnel and the show of similar biases during the ENDSARS protest where government and private properties were looted and set on fire, considering it human rights.
Mohammed, who wondered why the organization now found President Buhari’s tweet offensive, said Twitter’s role is suspect and Nigeria will not be fooled.
He said: “Twitter may have its own rules, it’s not the universal rule. If Mr. President, anywhere in the world feels very bad and concern about a situation, he is free to express such views. Now, we should stop comparing apples with oranges. If an organisation is proscribed, it is different from any other which is not proscribed.
“Two, any organisation that gives directives to its members, to attack police stations, to kill policemen, to attack correctional centres, to kill warders, and you are now saying that Mr. President does not have the right to express his dismay and anger about that? Are we the ones guilty of double standards? I don’t see anywhere in the world where an organisation, a person will stay somewhere outside Nigeria, and will direct his members to attack the symbols of authority, the police, the military, especially when that organisation has been proscribed. By whatever name, you can’t justify giving orders to kill policemen or to kill anybody you do not agree with.”
Igbere Tv
Breaking:AGF Malami requests Buhari to suspend Nigerian Constitution, declare martial law
Peoples Gazette is reporting that President Muhammadu Buhari is in the process of declaring a state of emergency across the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The online news platform said their report is based on a secret memo and official accounts, as the administration scrambles to waggle its way out of acute insecurity and the encumbrances of constitutional provisions.
Attorney-General Abubakar Malami has already written lengthy legal advice to the Nigerian president, urging him to move swiftly to suspend the fundamental rights of all Nigerians as guaranteed under Chapter IV of the Constitution.
In the eight-page secret memo dated May 4, 2021, Mr Malami told Mr Buhari that insecurity across Nigeria has reached a level that could no longer be checked by existing democratic techniques, saying only a state of emergency promulgated by the president can help return the country to tranquillity.
“The essence of declaration is to allow for suspension of constitutional and legal bureaucratic bottlenecks pertaining to matters of National Security with particular regards to fundamental rights guaranteed under Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution and processes and procedures relating to procurements, among others,” the attorney-general said.
Mr Malami said the president should issue instruments of emergency and publish them in the federal gazette. Senate President Ahmed Lawan and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila will be informed about the decision ahead of implementation, he added.
“To douse probable legal tension, it is important for the proclamation instrument of the statement of emergency to expressly provide for the suspension of Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution and its attendant enforcement rules,” Mr Malami wrote. “The suspension of rights pertaining to matters of national security will then give legal backing for the proclamation of the statement of emergency to be operational and effective without litigious or judicial distractions.”
In the early pages of the document, Mr Malami cited widespread acts of insecurity and blamed prominent separatist agitators like Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu for fueling the protracted crisis that has enveloped the country and aggravated the social and economic conditions of Nigerians.
The memo was endorsed to the president by National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno and administration officials are divided on how to proceed with the advice.
“Clearly, different factions of our government have different positions on this alarming proposal,” a presidency official told The Gazette. “But everyone agrees that the AGF holds powerful sway over the president and it would be a miracle if the Constitution is not suspended as he recommended.”
Another official also within the presidency, who confirmed hearing about the memo but had not seen it before they were reached by The Gazette, said Mr Buhari might have little resistance considering the potency of Mr Malami’s argument.
“The president is just saying they should act in the best interest of the country,” the official said. “Even as the president, he seemed to have given up on his own ability to get the AGF to back down.
Constitutional scholars and practitioners who analysed the memo for The Gazette said it was essentially a suspension of the Nigerian Constitution and declaration of martial law since Chapter IV dealt with fundamental human rights absence of which there cannot be a democratic system.
The analysts acknowledged the powers of the president to issue a state of emergency under Section 305 of the Constitution but said the powers are not absolute and do not include outright suspension of Chapter IV. While Section 305 said the president can declare a national emergency to curb criminalities, it did not expressly permit suspension of Chapter IV, which analysts described as the most important section of the Constitution.
The right to life and other crucial rights of modern society will be suspended under Mr Malami’s proposal.
The attorney-general appeared to lay the groundwork for the controversial plan when he decried on Tuesday that Mr Buhari’s respect for human rights was largely responsible for the administration’s seeming incompetence at tackling widespread carnage and lawlessness.
Mr Malami and presidential spokesman Garba Shehu did not return The Gazette’s requests for comments about the proposal.
Mr Buhari has been conflicted over widespread chaos that threatens to define his eight-year leadership as a democratically-elected leader. His administration is the fourth since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999 following years of military dictatorship.
Whereas he touted his military bona fides as a plus for his fitness for a nation beset by insecurity, the country has seen no changes in security challenges under Mr Buhari. Since 2015, thousands of Nigerians have been killed by armed bandits, killer herdsmen, kidnappers and even security agents. Millions of citizens are already racked by economic hardships which analysts blamed on the administration’s rudderless policies.
In his argument, Mr Malami alerted the president to the dangers of allowing the situation to go on unchecked, saying it would wreak even more devastating chaos compared to the current level of disorder.
But the prevailing state of security in Nigeria can be addressed under the existing constitutional framework, legal analyst Abdul Mahmud told The Gazette on Wednesday evening.
“The AGF’s position is nonsensical,” Mr Mahmud said. “They have their own sinister agenda and are trying to come under suspension of the Constitution to actualise it.”
Mr Mahmud said he was incensed by Mr Malami’s suggestion to the president, saying it was unbefitting of his position as attorney-general.
“If the attorney-general who ought to be the chief protector of our Constitution is suggesting the need to suspend Chapter IV of the Constitution, then it is clearly an attempt to plunge the country into further crisis,” he said.
“There’s no part of the Constitution, including Section 305, that contemplated the suspension of Chapter IV, which essentially is the suspension of the Constitution itself,” the legal expert said.
Source: Peoples Gazette
South East Governors To Declare 30th May Public Holiday – Gov Umahi
Following the sit-at-home ordered by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) to commemorate the 54th anniversary of the declaration of the Sovereign State of Biafra, South East Governors’ Forum Chairman, Dave Umahi, has said May 30 would be set aside as a day to remember millions of Igbo that lost their lives during the civil war.
Governor Umahi of Ebonyi State, who stated this during a television interview, yesterday, said there was the need to set aside a date to honour the Igbo who died during the three-year war, insisting there was nothing wrong with it. He said if a proposal to do so comes before the South East governors, they would give it consideration.
Explaining the reason May 30 should be set aside in Anambra, Abia, Enonyi, Enugu and Imo states as a day to remember the dead, he said if the country can recognise June 12 as Democracy Day to honour MKO Abiola, winner of the 1993 presidential election, there was nothing wrong in setting aside a day to remember five million Igbo, including children who were killed during the war.
“People are beginning to say that even beyond the issue of sitting at home, there is a need to set aside a date to honour our brothers and sisters who died during the civil war and there is nothing wrong with doing that. If it comes before the South East governors, we would give it consideration and put conditions and one of them would be that if anyone decides to do otherwise, you must allow the person to exercise his or her rights.
“Children, who didn’t know the reasons for declaring the war were killed and we are saying we should have a public holiday for people like that. We are saying if our leaders bring such proposition to us and speaking for myself, we would grant that day as a public holiday but there must be a proper request for this in one of our meetings. I believe it would even be deliberated upon in our next South East governors’ meeting.
“We have June 12 dedicated to MKO Abiola, we also have a date set aside for our fallen heroes, so, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a day set aside to mourn our dead but it depends on the motive because such a day is supposed to be a day of reflection.
“The South East leaders would be willing to set aside May 30 every year to honour our dead. The significance of that day, if set aside, is for each and every one of us to reflect and ask if we should have done things differently. Yes, we were being killed and we were being maltreated but maybe there would have been an alternative. What is done is done and the man who led us said there shouldn’t be a second war and that is where we are,” Umahi said.
On the issue of insecurity, he said since President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that anyone found with an unauthorised AK47 should be dealt with, going forward, any armed herdsman seen in Ebonyi will be ‘brought down’.
“The president has directed that anyone found with an unauthorised AK47 and is not a security agent, should be brought down and this is very important for the governors.
“So, if you are a herder, whether you are an Igbo or Fulani or Ijaw and you are armed with an AK47 and you are coming to my place, even if it is with a stick, I would use it to bring you down, that is the order of the President,” he said.
IPOB Should Stop Provoking War- Emeka Ugwuonye
WARS HAPPEN IN THREE DIFFERENT WAYS: EITHER YOU START A WAR OR YOU PROVOKE ONE OR YOU JOIN ONE STARTED OR PROVOKED BY OTHERS.
When the political change you are seeking is not negotiated and agreed to by all the stakeholders, one of two things will happen. If you have overwhelming power to impose that change on other stakeholders, you can do so. That will be an unnegotiated change without war. Your overwhelming power will prevent resistance, and the absence of resistance will result in an unnegotiated change without war.
But if you do not have the power to overwhelming others and you seek to bring about change, you must negotiate with them. Otherwise there will be resistance to the change you seek. If you insist on that change, there will be war. The attempt to impose unnegotiated change on someone you cannot overwhelm is tantamount to provocation of war. In fact, you do not even need to mention the word “war” to provoke war or to bring war about. The effort to achieve an unnegotiated change and the resistance to that effort leads to war.
Why did I bother to make the above clarification? I did so because I have heard IPOB and its supporters say that they do not want war, that they do not seek war, that all they want is to secede from Nigeria, ie, to redefine the map of Nigeria. That is: seeking a change. IPOB has has the option of either negotiating the change with the rest of Nigeria or to impose the change on the rest of Nigeria. However, IPOB cannot impose such change because it lacks the overwhelming power. In fact, IPOB’s only option is to negotiate. If it does not negotiate, it will provoke resistance and that is war.
So, please, it will take a particularly naive and uninformed person not to understand that any attempt to secede without an agreement with the rest of Nigeria will result in war. In fact, it already did on May 30, 1967. So, we have a precedent.
We already know that IPOB does not have the power to overwhelm Nigeria. The next question is whether IPOB has the power to counter the resistance of Nigeria. No, it does not. Rather, Nigeria has the power to overwhelm IPOB. In other words, not only that IPOB has no power to overwhelm, it also lacks the power to counter resistance. Indeed, the opponent can overwhelm IPOB and subjugate it relatively easily.
Also, I have read the views of some people who believe that Nigeria’s breakup is eminent and will occur without war, ie, that Nigeria will somehow implode and disintegrate and every ethnic group would go its own way. Nothing could be as naive as this line of argument. Countries do not break as neatly and as instantly as chinaware or glass cups. It takes an agonizing period of small wars, instabilities, civil strifes, breakdown of law and order, extreme suffering and anguish before a country can disintegrate on its own. Indeed, such never happened in history. There shall come a time when external forces would come in to achieve some break. If Nigeria goes into self-propelled disintegration mode, there will be at least a 15-year rule of banditory, gang-warfare and militancy. That will be worse than any war you could imagine.
Having laid out this background, I will be bold enough to state that the position of IPOB (secession or unnegotiated restoration of Biafra) will lead to war, which IPOB is not ready to fight. Such war is not in the interest of the Igbos. It will set the Igbos back by another 50 years. Even if IPOB manages to achieve through prayers a disintegration of Nigeria (breakup without war), that is still not in the interest of the Igbos. That will set the Igbos back by 50 years.
The point of this post is that those Igbos who don’t want war, who have the interest of the Igbos at heart must be bold enough to say no to the IPOB method.
It is true that IPOB has made an excellent case against the Fulani herdsmen and the dangers they pose. It is true that we all want an immediate end to the herdsmen problem. The fact is that eradicating the herdsmen menace is not the key objective of IPOB. IPOB wants secession or restoration of Biafra without the consent of the rest of Nigeria. That is its goal and its method.
There is nothing wrong in the desire for the Igbos to form their country or to join with other groups in the South-South to form Biafra or whatever other name they call such entity. There is nothing wrong in that as an objective. However, it must be pursued in a manner consistent with the best interest of the Igbos. That is to say, it must be pursued in a manner that will not provoke war.
Any Igbo person who dares to disagree with IPOB method has been met with vicious attacks, condemnation, threats and intimidation. As a result, many Igbos who do not want war have been forced into silence in face of IPOB’s stance that is clearly provocative of war. If that war occurs, as it is already manifesting in Imo State right now, the war will not spare those who wanted peace. It will consume all of us. Why then is it that those who don’t want war will remain silent and IPOB dominates the space?
Whatever killed Gulak in Imo State, no one knows. But people are already talking of revenge against the Igbos in the North. And a professor from Abia State has been killed in Minna, allegedly in revenge of Gulak’s slaying. Yet, that professor was not a member or a supporter of IPOB. In fact, every indication shows that that professor opposed (silently) the IPOB method. Why would an Igbo man who was never a supporter of IPOB take a blow meant for IPOB? But that is exactly the irony of our reality – that every Igbo person faces danger as a result of the utterances, threats and actions of the IPOB. Therefore, silence and indifference to IPOB is deadly, more deadly than actively supporting IPOB.
Many have asked me: What shall we do about the Fulani herdsmen? What shall we do about the atrocities they commit in our land? What shall we do about the systemic enslavement of umuIgbos in Nigeria? My answer is this: We must resist the presence of the herdsmen in our lands. We demand our Governors to totally remove them and ban their presence. The so-called freedom of movement the Attorney-General tried to use to justify the criminal presence of those herdsmen must be denounced actively by the Governors. All Igbo politicians – Governors, Senators, House Members, etc must come together and take a stance on the matter. And guess what, the umuIgbo should not vote for a governor or a party that does not actively seek to enforce the ban against herdsmen presence.
I have heard that the Igbo Governors are lackies who have no minds of their own. But it is easier for the Igbos to vote out these Governors than to fight in another civil war. It beats my imagination why IPOB never tried to use its apparent voting power to remove the Governors that have failed to stop the herdsmen. Let us educate the people and show them how to remove those politicians who cannot fight against the herdsmen. How can we vote-in a politician who is a servant of the Fulani hegemony? It is much easier to educate our voters on how to vote than to educate them on how to fight wars. In fact, I wish IPOB could become a political party and clear the Igbo votes. I will probably join IPOB if they can register as a political party and renounce violence.
I use this opportunity to announce that I will be seeking to bring together Igbos who seek change for the betterment of the Igbos, but without war and through peaceful and diplomatic channels. The silence of the Igbo elite is dragging into a war that will destroy our people.
Emeka Ugwuonye, Esquire, President, Eculaw Group, Founder and CEO, DPA
SOLUDO WAVES AN ECONOMIC WAND: SET TO POPULARIZE LOCALLY WOVEN IGBO AKWUETE!
Cee Cee Soludo beat us to the game on what he would wear to procure his expression of interest and nomination forms. We had predicted he would appear in APGA House Abuja wearing his signature white senator or a fitting T- shirt or the APGA apparel embossed with the iconic Ikemba and the Willingly Working Willie. He did none of these. We are not disappointed either because unknown to many he is brewing another economic revolution. This time, he is peering at the new economy – fashion segment.
And it is becoming clearer that Soludo is not under promising when he said he would be producing one thousand youth millionaires each year he is in office as governor.
The top he wore on the black trouser is an Akwuete cloth locally woven. For those who may not know, Akwuete cloth is a hand woven textile produced in Igboland for which the town of Akwuete in Abia state is famous.
Now Soludo believes that a greatness is there for us to see in our past. This dying industry is one such example. But he is seeing a huge industry that has potentials not just to create jobs but be spurned to produce global brands which the world would love to wear and Ndigbo will be proud they are their gifts to the world. This is an unfolding fashion industry story we shall surely return to soon.
For now, admire Soludo in his wine red Akwuete with shades of white stripes uniquely hand woven in Igboland and tailored in Anambra; and imagine the huge industry we can have if we embrace using Akwuete to make fashion statements as a way of life.
We’re are sure he has many-sided more tricks in his economic emancipation bag; the real reason why Ndi Anambra and APGA are looking in his direction to win the November 6, 2021 election for them.
However let us for now join the jubilations across the entire Anambra landscape on his formal entry in the ring and wish him all the best.
Joe Anatune
Anatune writes from Awa