The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has called the attention of the international community to the incessant harassment, humiliation, intimidation of Afaraukwu community in Umuahia-Ibeku, Abia State by officers of the Nigerian Army.

Afaraukwu is the country home of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, whose late parents are scheduled for burial on February 14, 2020.

The group wondered the justification behind the Federal Government's deployment of soldiers to the venue of a funeral while terrorists are busy making the lives of law-abiding citizens a misery.

In a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, IPOB said that it defies both common sense and logic that Nigerian soldiers went AWOL in terror-ravaged areas of the North, “refused to battle bandits and terror groups they themselves sponsored, but are busy killing and terrorising innocent and unarmed individuals in the East.”

The statement read in part: “Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, Miyetti Allah bandits, ISIS in West Africa, Al-Queda in the Mhagreb are dutifully waiting for Gen Buratai and his warriors to engage them in battle in the North; that is the real security problem facing Nigeria not the burial of His Royal Majesty Eze Israel Okwu Kanu and his wife.

“In the history of world military, the brazen and cowardly display of military might in Isiama Afaraukwu by Nigerian Army as Boko Haram and other Fulani sponsored terror groups wreak havoc on defenceless citizens is confirmation that Buratai and his men are not true soldiers but mere terrorists with constitutional backing.”

The group insisted that the place of real soldiers were war fronts, not terrorising innocent civilians preparing for burial ceremony.

It stressed that what the soldiers are doing in Umuahia is no different from what terrorists are doing in the North-East of Nigeria, saying that they invade peaceful communities, kill, pillage, destroy and kidnap people at will.

Continuing, the statement said: “The same template Boko Haram and other Fulani-sponsored murder-squads are operating under in the North is exactly what the Nigerian Army is doing in the East.

“The Nigerian Army fled the battlefields of the North, abandoned their constitutional duty to fight armed insurgency but instead turned their armoured tanks and troops on Afaraukwu community because of a burial ceremony.

“We wish to notify the world that preparations for the burial of our leader's parents is going ahead as planned. The Nigerian Army is wasting their time and valuable resources in trying to stop something they know they are incapable of stopping. Burial of the dead is a right older than man itself.

“Nigeria government has failed to confront armed Fulani insurgency and Boko Haram menace in the north but instead chose to focus their attention on a burial ceremony in Afaraukwu. It is indicative of the misplaced priorities at the heart of this APC regime which has directly led to the deterioration of security situation across Nigeria.

“We are reminding the APC government in Aso Rock and their cowardly soldiers to return to the North to fight Boko Haram terrorists and leave IPOB and Afaraukwu community alone.

“One thing is certain, come 14 February 2020, the parents of our leader will be laid to rest. APC regime, Nigerian Army and their badly informed supporters cannot stop IPOB from restoring the sovereign state of Biafra within the shortest possible time by the grace of God.”

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