The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has described a press statement issued by the central zone chairman of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Mr. Kennedy Olorogun, as shameful.

The statement had warned IPOB members not to come to Ijaw land, again, or they should be ready to be beaten anytime they do so.

IPOB regretted that those leading IYC central zone know nothing about Ijaw people, history, struggle, survival and enemies.

In a statement made available to journalists in Awka on Tuesday by IPOB Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, the group said that the IYC is oblivious of the enemies of Ijaw people.

The statement partly reads: “It is a thing of shame to see the most respected group among Ijaw people allow itself to be ridiculed by the unguarded utterances of one man, whose claim to Ijaw descendancy is at best questionable.

“To issue a statement against the great Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, threatening to ‘beat’ Biafrans who are themselves of Ijaw nationality and indigenes of Bayelsa State us shameful.

“Unbeknown to Mr Olorogun Kennedy whose first name points to his true origin, Bayelsa State and Ijawland is the birth place of Biafra. Mr Olorogun Kennedy is a DSS informant craving the attention of his Arewa masters by making attention grabbing comments on the pages of newspapers to attract more financial reward from those that have rendered Niger Delta desolate.

“Maybe Mr Olorogun is not aware that IYC Elders Council publicly hosted our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in Igweocha (Port Harcourt) in 2017 at a public event held in Niger Street. One will begin to wonder who this man is truly representing, is it the Ijaw people or the enemies of Ijaw people?

“Boko Haram, herdsmen, ISWAP etc and all other terrorist organizations in the north have killed countless Nigerians and Nigerian military officers yet no northern community has been burnt to the ground, rather they keep sending more soldiers from Biafra, Oodua and the Middle Belt origin to be killed in the name of preserving Nigeria’s territorial borders.

“Nigerian army has never taken offense and burnt down communities as a result of the activities of these terrorists but at the slightest provocation of sea pirates in Ijawland they will take offense and burn down the properties of law abiding Ijaw citizens yet IYC has been mute about this.”

IPOB maintained that it remains the only organisation bold enough to confront the excesses of the government of Nigeria adding that if IYC central zone is standing against IPOB but chose to be mute against the evil meted upon Ijaw people by oppressors, then it means that their loyalty is no longer towards Ijaw people but the oppressors.

Continuing, the statement said: “Again, I say, they don’t know the Ijaw struggle nor the Ijaw history. I say this because they claim that Ijaw Nation is not Biafra and accused IPOB of attempting to cause trouble in Ijawland which according to them is not Biafra. This is not only hilarious but appears to be informed by ignorance.

“Funny enough, no one can tell the Biafra story without mentioning Ijaw, not even Igbo which he was warning in his so called letter. Biafra is a country that began its advancement from the coast, from Ijawland. Before the creation of what is called Nigeria today (before 1914), every enlightened Ijaw man knew he was a Biafran and that his nation Ijaw is one among many in the Biafra territory.

“This is why Major Isaac Adaka Boro in his book, The Twelve Days Revolution, where he was trying to describe the location of the Ijaw Nation he was agitating for which he called “Niger Delta Republic”, he wrote and I quote: ‘The Niger Delta we shall consider is strictly the area occupied by the Ijaws, the aboriginal tribe of the Delta. It spans the coast of the bight of Biafra from the Forcados River to the Opobo River and upstream to the Niger tributaries of the Nun and Forcados Rivers.’

“To confirm the consciousness of Biafra in enlightened Ijaw men of old, one year after Isaac Adaka Boro’s declaration of the Ijaw Nation he called Niger Delta when the defunct Eastern region which comprised of most parts of the Biafran territory in Nigeria wanted to go her separate ways from Nigeria because of genocide against Biafran people by the rest of Nigeria.

“Another Ijaw son who died as a king in Ijawland, Frank Opigo reminded the Eastern Assembly that the identity of our collective people is Biafra and the name was adopted because no one could dispute that reality. How then can anyone say Ijaw Nation is not Biafra when Biafra herself got her name from an Ijaw body of water which the oppressive Nigerian state changed after the genocidal war to the name of an Ijaw kingdom Bonny. What is called Bonny River today was once called Biafra River.”

IPOB called on the IYC President and every other Ijaw leader to reprimand IYC central zone chairman and call him to order.

IPOB noted that there are many ways the IYC central zone chairman would have used to seek relevance saying that using the name of IPOB to attract cheap publicity will be his undoing.

“For the avoidance of doubt IPOB meetings in various zones were held last Sunday across Bayelsa State and will continue to hold in Yenagoa Province Biafraland until eternity,” the statement added.

It urged people to disregard Olorogun’s statement.

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