Daily Trust, a Nigerian online media based in Northern Nigeria, has reported the Nigerian Government claim that IPOB, a peaceful Movement working for the restoration of the sovereign state of Biafra, cruelly killed three Nigerian Policemen. According to the report, this claim was made by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Nigerian Minister of Information.
The report states, among other things:
“We have credible information that ASP Francis Idoko (AP No. 154945), Inspector Emmanuel Akubo (AP No. 222336) and Inspector Rufai Adamu (AP No. 285009), all officers of the Nigeria Police Force, were abducted on November 27, 2021, by members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) on the instructions of their leader, Chinonso Okafor, also known as TEMPLE.
“Two of the officials, Inspectors Akubo and Adamu, were killed in the most gruesome manner, and their decapitated corpses were videotaped and circulated. The leader of the ESN team that killed the two officials is a certain “GENTLE.”
“Chinonso Okafor, the most influential commander of the ESN in charge of Imo and Anambra states, as well as ‘Gentle’ and all those who committed this heinous act will be swiftly and safely brought to justice,” the minister said.
Reading the above quote, a foreigner might think it is true, but those who know the Nigerian Government be aware that the above statement is a fabrication, and therefore one of their mechanisms to blackmail IPOB.
Watching the online video that led to this report, one quickly wonders how the ESN, which was formed only to curb the activities of Fulani herdsmen terrorists wreaking havoc in the eastern part of the country, can suddenly behead the policemen.
Not only does the accusation that the ESN has become be-headers sound ridiculous, but also the claim that they go so far as to state that the act was committed by the ESN makes the entire story rather implausible.
No thief will say that he is the thief after he has stolen.
How can someone rob a bank and shout his name to the world for everyone to know he is robbing the bank? Who would do such a thing?
Remember, the Nigerian Government has played the same game before. It was in ANAMBRA, South Eastern State. The Nigerian Police reported to News Men that IPOB members robbed the First Bank in Onitsha and hung the Biafra flag in the bank.
Ask yourself again how a freedom movement that has supported itself for more than 12 years can suddenly rob a bank? And even if they want to rob a bank, why would they do it with their flag? Are they that insane? Who is supposed to believe this story? No one goes stealing with their pictures or IDs to betray himself. The blackmailing of the Indigenous People of Biafra by the government of the day is becoming childish.
A country with questionable integrity cannot be trusted.
A Country that opens fire on its youths while they wave the national flag and sing the national anthem can murder its policemen to blackmail IPOB.
Is it not the same Alhaji Lai Mohammed who denied killing the youths at Lekki Tollgate after a panel set up by the Lagos State Government submitted a report proving that the Nigerian Government through its military had indeed opened fire on those youths?
Since the Nigerian Government abducted Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya and brought him to Nigeria, they have been working desperately to convict him. Realizing that extraordinary rendition is a crime, they are now trying to blackmail IPOB. In doing so, the Buhari-led Government wants to have something in hand to justify an unfounded prosecution and probably imprisonment of the IPOB leader.
The Nigerian Government should understand that it cannot jail Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. There is no point in killing its police officers and recruiting people who keep shouting “We are ESN.” The world is already aware of the evil going on in Nigeria, especially under the current APC government.
Self-determination is a fundamental human right, and no one deserves to die just for trying to deny a person this basic right. Human life is sacred and must be respected.
Elochukwu Ohagi, philosopher, educator and activist, 2021
Edited By Robinson Afamefuna Ambrose
