Nigeria`s separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has asked the British high commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing to cancel her “planned activities involving travels within Biafran Territories”.
By Biafran territories, the group was referring to mostly the southeast region of Nigeria, where IPOB currently fights to liberate as an independent republic.
Clarform reports that the areas that make up the old Biafran territories also includes some parts of the South-south and the country`s middle belt.
IPOB has long been proscribed in Nigeria under the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, an action that was immediately condemned both locally and globally.
The security warning from the separatist group is said to follow from some intelligence report from IPOB`s M-Branch, which claims that there is an “orchestrated conspiracy” to assassinate Catriona Laing on “Biafran Territories” and implicate IPOB for the crime.
The group therefore, released a statement on Thursday, raising alarm of the alleged plot, which it says was for the purpose of saving the life of the UK High Commissioner.
IPOB once again, also reiterated that it is not a violent organization and will not employ violence as a means of achieving its set goal of a sovereign Republic of Biafra.
Notable Quotes:
The statement was signed by the group`s spokesperson, Emma Powerful, and reads in part:
“The reason for this sincere security advice is to save her life despite her hatred for Biafra and Igbos in particular. We have optimal respect and value for the sanctity of life, especially for visitors to our land,” the statement reads.
“In view of the recently intercepted Intel by our M-Branch, the IPOB Intelligence Unit Department, there’s an orchestrated conspiracy to perform a sacrifice big and powerful enough to strengthen the potency of the British hatred against the Igbos and Biafra. Such high profile plan is zeroed toward using a highly placed person capable of making headline news globally as a scapegoat.
“The leadership of IPOB do hereby advise that Ms Catriona Liang must as a matter of life and death suspend all her planned activities involving travels within Biafran Territories. Those that are threatened by the Biafra restoration project have perfected evil plans to assassinate Ms Catriona Liang, the British Envoy on Biafra soil as a quick and cogent reason for Britain to disengage their weapons supplies to Ukraine and concentrate same towards Nigeria to be used against Biafrans. Their aim is to quash the agitation for Self-Determination and to kill as many Indigenous Biafrans as possible and other residents in Biafra land.
“IPOB does not wish the British Envoy death or dead, however, if she ignores this advice and walks into the trap already set by the enemies of the Biafra struggle, that will be considered suicidal.”
“The UK Government must understand that IPOB’s grudges against them have not reached to the extent that warrants assassination of their citizens in Biafraland, in Nigeria or in any other part of the World for that matter,” he added.
