The United Kingdom through their diplomatic mission in Abuja – the British High Commission, has clarified the country`s position on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which confirmed the explanations by Williams Ukonu.
In a press release by the High Commission, which was obtained by our reporter, the UK completely disassociated herself from the false reporting across some section of the Nigerian press, which claimed that the UK has reorganized IPOB as a terrorist organization.
The UK government categorically clarified their position in the press release, which was promptly released as the false reporting went round the local Nigeria media space on Friday 6th May.
According to the press release, IPOB is not a terrorist organization and was never declared to be one under the laws of the United Kingdom or the European Union. It also clarified that members of the organization are not barred from seeking asylum in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The false reporting was an embarrassment to the separatist body, which is fighting to separate from the Republic of Nigeria. It was also a big embarrassment to the Nigerian press, whose main stream media were involved in the misleading report.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was founded by Nnamdi kanu, a fiery separatist leader who have given new vent to the protest by the people of the South Eastern Nigerian for long complained marginalization in the country.
Sahara Reporters, based in the United States but reports mostly Nigerian news was involved in the scandal of false reporting. Another big media house also involved in the embarrassing report was the Channels Television.
Following the false reporting on Friday, we published an article, which immediately flagged the misleading information contained in the report, which was written by Mr. Williams Ukonu, a Known Nigerian lawyer and rights advocate and also a champion of the Biafran self-determination movement.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Mr. Ukonu wrote – “The false reporting yesterday by the Nigerian press says so much about how far this Nigerian government can go to demonize Biafra and IPOB.
It is a shame that even Channels Television can be used for such a hatchet job against innocent people.
Does it mean that Channels TV have no credible legal team to analyse very simple policy statement written in simple English language?
Could they not have reached out to the UK embassy in Nigeria for clarifications if they needed one?
They rushed to twist the story to favour their paymaster and some gullible minds believed them.
Inconsequential publishers like Sahara Reporters and some other bandwagon online publishers followed suit.
By not crosschecking and verifying news source and credibility, these media houses ignorantly took part in disseminating Buhari’s propaganda against IPOB.”
Below is a copy of the British High Commission Abuja:
