The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) says the comments credited to Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, on the agitation for Biafra by the group was an indication that he was living in isolation and ignorant of the fate of his children in Nigeria.

IPOB also tongue-lashed Captain Ben Gbulie (rtd.), accusing him and his group of plunging Ndigbo into misery in Nigeria through their failed 1966 coup.

IPOB, while reacting to comments by the minister that the group was using uncivilised method in its agitation, and that it does not have the mandate of Ndigbo to carry on with its Biafra self-determination campaign, condemned the comments credited to the Minister, which, it said has “only exposed either his naivety on the fate of his children and grand children in this contraption or his sycophantic attempt to endear himself to Gen. (Muhammadu) Buhari, at the expense of his own people.”

In a statement entitled “A Jaundiced Minister’s Avoidable Gaffee”, IPOB’s Secretary for Media and Publicity, Comrade Emma Powerful, said the freedom fighters wished to inform Onyeama, “that he only exposed himself to ridicule, as our people have recently united behind us as we march towards liberating ourselves, to the extent that even those who misunderstood us have all apologised to us.”

Comrade Emma Powerful added: “Mr. Onyeama lives in an isolated world of himself.

“We plead with Minister Onyeama to enquire from his Oga why his people refuses to include religion and ethnicity in the census data. Why JAMB cut-off marks for Northern students are lower than that of Southern students. Why the entire South East is crammed into only 95 Local Government Areas (almost at par with old Kano State), why the South East had the least amount in the 2016 budget, why the East was excluded from projects billed for the $30 billion loan, why unnarmed IPOB members are slaughtered like chicken, why federal government refused to obey court order for the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

“We know Minister Onyeama would never find the courage to confront his Oga with these self evident truths.

“Dear Minister Onyeama, All government apologists and agents of the oppressor have repented and apologised to us. You are standing all alone in your fear of the truth. Only the truth can set you free. We have sighted the Promised Land, as we cross the red sea with confidence and faith; we know what will soon happen to Pharaoh and his chariots.

“You only represent the last relics and vestiges of a dying breed, a breed that held us down for over four decades. Check your watch Sir, to find out what time it is. The train left the station, while you were still in the bathroom, Sir.

“Finally, we plead with Capt. Ben. Gbulie to kindly make suggestions on how we may escape the miseries he and his colleagues plunged us into, 50 years ago. Captain Gbulie knows, that the humiliation we have been subjected to since 1966 has become unbearable, he knows the lop-sided killings he and his colleagues embarked upon on 16th of January 1966, plunged us into the suffering. He also knows that the pogrom, the war, and the slavery of our people since then, is only as a direct result of their failed coup of January 1966.

“Captain Gbulie and co. embarked on an exercise that failed woefully and led to the death of over three million souls, the dislocation of our people from the affairs of Nigeria and the unacceptable subjection of our people to perpetual slavery.

“Retired Captain Gbulie and Co., who should apologise for placing us in this horrible mess, ought, in all honesty, to make atonement and lead the struggle for freedom of their children and grand children from this mess they put us into.

“It is the height of disgrace for Captain Gbulie to blame us for the mess he created without making any useful suggestion on how to deliver us from the pit his action of January 1966, pushed us into. We are making every effort to climb out from that pit without any help from the very people who created the problems for our generation.

“The fact that, the same characters are today, hired and paid to subvert and undermine our effort is pathetic. The Gbulie interview would have made sense, had he offered useful suggestions on how to help our people climb out of the political latrine their actions of January 1966, pushed us all into. Pity.”

•Photo shows Geoffrey Onyeama.

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