‘Same Canada that denied you visa hosts largest IPOB branch,’ Biafra group mocks CDS Musa

Proscribed Igbo separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has mocked Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, and recalled how the army brass was denied a Canadian visa.

He accused him and the Nigerian Army of attempting to intimidate Biafrans and suppress their rights to free speech and self-determination while basking in the fact that Canada which denied visas to the CDS and some Nigerian Army officers “hosts one of the largest and most vibrant IPOB families globally”.

In a statement issued on Sunday by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, IPOB declared that attempts by the CDS and the Nigerian government to undermine the group has been rubbished by the recognition it got from the Canadian government.

“The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), under the resolute leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, unequivocally condemns the brazen and provocative statements by Christopher Musa, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, who has once again resorted to threatening and intimidating Biafrans for exercising their inalienable rights to free speech and self-determination through social media,” Powerful said.

“Musa’s reckless call for Southeasterners to cease propagating IPOB’s activities is not only an affront to our fundamental freedoms but a desperate attempt to silence the awakening of Biafran consciousness. We will not be cowed, and we will not be silenced.”

The statement also criticized what it described as the Nigerian Army’s human rights record against the people of the South-East region.

“Musa’s Nigerian Army, an institution soaked in the blood of innocent Igbo youths, has no moral standing to lecture Biafrans on what is good for us. This is the same army that has orchestrated relentless massacres of our people since 1966, from the pogroms that claimed over 5 million Igbo lives to the ongoing genocidal campaigns in Biafraland.

“We ask Musa: What was the crime of the Biafran youths slaughtered at Nkpor in 2016, a massacre acknowledged by Amnesty International and UN Special Rapporteurs as constituting crimes against humanity?

“What was the offence of the Igbo youths mowed down at National High School, Aba, or those killed during the Trump solidarity rally in Port Harcourt?

“What justified the murderous invasion of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s residence during Operation Python Dance, where 28 innocent Biafrans, including Kanu’s parents, were killed in cold blood by your forces?”

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Speaking on a recent visit of the CDS to traditional rulers in the South-East, Powerful said:

“Musa, your audacity to spew gibberish on Biafran soil is enabled only by the cowardice of lily-livered traditional rulers who grant you audience to desecrate our land with your presence. Such traditional rulers are unfit to lead and must face the consequences of their betrayal.

“We hold them in contempt for entertaining an agent of oppression whose hands drip with the blood of our people.

“Let us remind Musa of the undeniable truth: It was IPOB’s social media activism that halted the Fulani RUGA settlement scheme in your own Kaduna village, preserving your people’s right to their ancestral lands.

“It was IPOB, under Nnamdi Kanu’s leadership, that stopped the Waterways Bill designed to enslave indigenous populations to Fulani hegemony.

“Instead of gratitude for IPOB’s tireless efforts to protect indigenous peoples across Nigeria from Janjaweed domination, you parade your ignorance, vilifying the very movement that safeguarded your community from perpetual bondage. Shame on you, Musa, for your blindness and ingratitude.

“Your reference to IPOB as ‘unlawful’ is laughable. No nation in the world, except … Nigeria, has proscribed IPOB. Even Canada, which rejected your visa application, hosts one of the largest and most vibrant IPOB families globally.

“Your Fulani masters proscribed IPOB not because we are a threat to peace but because we stand as an unyielding bulwark against their agenda to subjugate Biafrans and other indigenous peoples. You are too myopic to see that IPOB’s activism protects even the likes of you from the very forces you serve.”

“We call on all Biafrans to intensify our social media campaign to enlighten our people that Biafran freedom is not just a dream but the ultimate goal of every South easterner.

“To the traditional rulers who entertain agents of genocide like Musa, we say: Your time is up. The Biafran people will hold you accountable for betraying our collective struggle. To Musa and the Nigerian Army, we declare: Your intimidation will not bend us. Your massacres will not break us. Biafra will rise, and no force on earth can stop it.”

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