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11/01/20

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The "Terrorists" Of IPOB By Femi Fani-Kayode

Femi Fani-Kayode

I watched my brother Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's interview with my brother Chief Dele Momodu on Thursday evening and I was inspired and encouraged.

Nnamdi spoke with such eloquence, passion, courage and strength. He is brilliant and irrepressible. He cannot be underestimated or ignored.

Every African should listen to that interview. He cleared a lot of misconceptions about himself and made his position clear on so many issues.

Most important of all is the fact that he had the decency and humility to tender his regrets and apologies where he may have got things wrong. That is the mark of a great leader.

I have loved and trusted him dearly ever since the first day we met and spoke for 3 hours when we were both incarcerated at Kuje prison in 2016.

From the first minute we got on like a house on fire and we have been close ever since. There is nothing that binds men together more than being locked up together in prison or being on the battlefield together and fighting side by side and shoulder to shoulder against a common enemy.

The truth is that Nnamdi is not just a friend but a brother. We do not agree on everything but we agree on many things and the fact that we can tell each other the blunt and bitter truth whenever we feel either of us has gone wrong is the source and strength of our relationship.

Most importantly we stand as a moderating influence on one another both in our public and private affairs and trust me when I tell you that this man is a stabilising force, a good family man and a peacemaker.

Femi Fani-Kayode

Yet whatever anyone chooses to say or feel about him the truth is that he won millions of new friends and supporters after that interview from all over the country.

I thank Dele for giving this great man the opportunity to express himself to the Nigerian people on a mainstream platform such as his which has a massive reach.

After listening to the discussion I was prompted to meditate and ponder on how IPOB is wrongly perceived by many Nigerians and to write the following. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride.

You call members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) terrorists yet you refuse to bring to justice those that have slaughtered or illegally detained and incarcerated 30,000 of their members in the last 5 years.

This number was given to me by Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, IPOB's lawyer, whose home and community in Orifite, Anambra state was also attacked, burnt down and plundered whilst many of his people were slaughtered in a joint operation by the Nigerian military and police in a matter of hours.

I was there to spend the day with him and mourn the loss of his brother on a Sunday and the tanks rolled in on Monday morning just a few hours after I left!

When Ifeanyi called me early in the morning to say that they were under attack, that his house and his late brothers house had been burnt to the ground, that his elderly mother had been beaten to a pulp, that the Church building that I had given a speech in the day before had been pulled down and destroyed and that many of his people had been killed for no just cause, tears rolled down my cheeks.

Had he not fled for his life and gone into hiding Ifeanyi himself would have been killed on that day.

Any group of people that have been subjected to that kind of barbarism from the Nigerian state would have resorted to an open armed struggle by now but Nnamdi Kanu's IPOB have refused to do so.

Their struggle and quest for Biafran independence has remained relatively peaceful despite the provocation from the Nigerian state and the massive persecution they have been subjected to for 5 years.

Now tell me between IPOB and the Nigerian state who are the real terrorists? Who has done the killing? Who has terrorised? Who has spilled the blood of the innocent? Who has operated unlawfully and committed genocide and crimes against humanity?

Who has sponsored and protected the Fulani herdsmen and refused to curb and condemn their barbaric activities or declare them as a terrorist organisation?

Who has been soft on ISWA and Boko Haram and released and reintegrated thousands of their members into our Armed Forces even after they slaughtered hundreds of thousands of defenceless Nigerians, including women and children?

Who has unleashed their troops and security forces on their own people and killed thousands of their own citizens? Who has crushed and destroyed the lives and families of the innocent?

Who has burnt down Churches, slaughtered priests at the alter and who has sacked, pillaged, levelled, captured and renamed towns and whole communities?

Who has seized the land of farmers and raped their wives and children, butchered Christians and Shia Muslims and slaughtered thousands in Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and the core North.

Who has hacked to pieces thousands in Southern Kaduna, Taraba, Plateau, Adamawa, Benue and murdered protesting children in Mushin and at the Lekki Toll Gate?

Was it IPOB or members, associates and friends of the Buhari regime and those they encourage and protect?

I am not a man of violence and I do not support the use of arms. Where anyone or group of persons, including IPOB, involves themselves in violence I am the first to condemn it.

I despise those that shed innocent blood and those that unleash mayhem, havoc and tyranny on innocent people.

Yet the bitter truth is that those that have done more of this than anyone else in this country over the last 5 years are the Federal Government and their friends, associates and allies and not IPOB, OPC, YOLICOM, MASSOB, YWC, Yourba Summit Group, MEND, NDVF, IYC, the Lower Niger Congress or any of the other regional or self-determination groups.

I am not a coward and neither am I chicken-hearted. Truth is my sword and the Lord is my shield and armour. I fear nothing and nobody other than God.

It is for this reason that I refuse to be cowed or browbeaten into joining the gullible and ignorant herd of lily-livered cheerleaders who take pleasure in attacking and demonising the victims of the state like IPOB instead of condemning the unbelievable cruelty and crushing wickedness that has been unleashed upon them by agents of the state.

And the only reason they do this is because IPOB has not been given adequate fair hearing in the nations media or the public space to explain and defend themselves or tell their own side of the story to the Nigerian people.

The bitter truth is that more than any other group in this country over the last five years IPOB have been misepresented, villified, attacked, demonised and subjected to the greatest and most horrendous form of misrepresentation and negative propaganda. If anyone is attacked in the south or any police station burnt, according to our media, it must be IPOB.

Thousands of their members are in cells all over the country as we speak and yet no-one speaks for them, no one cares for them and no one empathises with them. This is unacceptable. This is inhuman. This is unfair. This is unjust. This is evil.

Worse still to compare IPOB to Boko Haram, ISWA or the Fulani herdsmen is like comparing Little Red Riding Hood to the hungry and ravenous wolf or like comparing Mother Theresa to Jack the Ripper: it simply does not make sense.

Some have alleged that IPOB youths committed acts of violence throughout the East and parts of Rivers state during the #EndSARS protests. Unconfirmed reports suggest that some of them even killed policemen and other innocent Nigerians. I find these reports troubling but I do however question them.

The Nnamdi Kanu that I know can be impulsive and say some very harsh things at times but he is not a killer or a violent man. He is a formidable intellectual and a visionary leader and not a merciless, bellicose, violent, murderous and bloodthirsty barbarian.

God forbid such a thing but if he was a man that took pleasure in the spilling of blood he would have put one million Ak 47's in the hands of his followers by now and all hell would have broken loose. Violence is not in his blood and neither is it in his interest.

On several occasions he has told me privately and has said publicly that IPOB's struggle is and must always be a peaceful one and he is wise enough to know that anything outside of that will be counterproductive and would lose him a lot of support and sympathy.

If indeed IPOB youths, as opposed to thuggish hoodlums that are claiming to be IPOB or rogue elements within the organisation, have killed anyone anywhere then I wholeheartedly condemn it and such barbaric behaviour must stop forthwith.

Two wrongs can never make a right. The fact that the Nigerian state indulges in mass murder does not mean that their victims must also soil their hands with innocent blood.

And if anyone doubts that the Nigerian state is indeed a brutal and bloodlusting killing machine which seeks to crush dissent and silence those that do not key into its inherent barbarism then I challenge them to find out how many young innocent Igbos are being targeted and killed by security forces in parts of Rivers state today in the name of fighting IPOB.

The mass murder of Igbo people for whatever reason and under whatever guise in Obigbo, Rivers state is unacceptable. I condemn it in the strongest terms.

Where is our humanity? Must the Igbo always be slaughtered like flies in Nigeria? Do they not have red blood too? Does any race or human being deserve this type of targetting and treatment?

I condemn the killing of security agents by anyone in that community but does that mean that every Igbo there must be treated like a prisoner of war or massacred?

What moral right do we have as southerners to complain when northerners kill our people when we in the south are so ready to kill one another in such a barbaric and cruel way? Today I weep for the South and I weep for Nigeria.

Children and youths were massacred by soldiers at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos just two weeks ago and today children and youths, of Igbo extraction, are being targeted, hunted down like animals and massacred by soldiers in Obigbo in Rivers state. This inexplicable MADNESS and unconciable BLOODLUST must stop!

If the truth be told the real terrorists in this country are in Aso Rock and not on the streets of Igboland or in the ranks of IPOB.

Calling for a referendum and seeking to peacefully exercise your right of self-determination after being subjected to and confronted with 60 years of subjugation, murder, ethnic cleansing, tyranny and genocide does not make you a terrorist, it makes you a courageous man of conscience and a freedom fighter.

I am not from the old Eastern Region of Nigeria and therefore I am not a member of IPOB. I hail from the old Western Region where we have our own struggles and where we also seek to chart our own course and determine our own future.

That struggle is for either restructuring of the country or, failing that, the peaceful establishment of our own nation which we shall call Oduduwa Republic.

This is a noble quest because Nigeria has failed us just as it has failed everyone else. And if things do not change quickly it is a quest that will be achieved sooner than later.

Yet the struggle for freedom is not for the Biafrans and the sons of Oduduwa alone: it is also for the ordinary people of the core North who have been through hell and who have been subjected to unprecedented levels of carnage and savagery.

Again it is also for the people of the Middle Belt and the so-called minorities of the north who have suffered for so long and who have been denied, deprived and suppressed more than any other people in Nigeria. They too shall be free from the yoke, bondage and cruelty of imperial Nigeria.

Permit me to conclude this contribution with the following. No matter how many IPOB members you torture, jail and kill and no matter how many of them you misrepresent and demonise, they cannot be stopped because an idea whose time has come cannot be successfully resisted.

Like the great Libyan warrior Omar Al Mouqthar who was known as the 'Lion of the Desert', their battle cry is "we win or we die".

Like the gallant and courageous Patrick Henry, who led the American people in their struggle for independence from Great Britain, their song is "give me freedom or give me death!"

That is their story, that is their song and it is ours too. Freedom calls and liberty beckons: one million tanks cannot stop them and all the misrepresention, disinformation, misinformation and lies in the world cannot deter them.

Opinion AddThis : Original Author : Femi Fani-Kayode Disable advertisements :
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The Boomerang Effects Of Government's Social Media Regulation Battle Cry By Samuel O. Adeyemi

The #EndSARS protests that hit the streets of Nigeria have jotted the ruling class into reality. The protests, propelled by young Nigerians, will forever be ingrained in the minds of everyone.

Before the protests hit the streets, the cyberspace provided the only channel through which young people can ventilate their frustration and anger against the system.

The young people that propelled the protests have been maligned and called all sorts of names. They have been labelled as a lame duck when it comes to the issue of nation-building and changing government policy.

They have been called the 'phone pressing generation' interested only in voting massively during reality TV shows but fail to take a step further and vote during general elections in the country.

A leader once called them ‘lazy’. Yet, another lawmaker called them a ‘drug-ridden generation’. It was therefore a shock to the old generation to see these set of young people pouring to the streets and sustaining protests for more than two weeks.

Even before the protests went ‘viral’ on the streets, some brave young men and women have camped in front of the Lagos House of Assembly, in the day and in the night, to call attention to the atrocities of the defunct Special Anti-robbery Squad.

When their message started taking hold, for close to 12 days, vibrant young people across the nation held the world spellbound with their dexterity, creativity and administrative genius.

They created a country within a country by creating a welfare system that fed the hungry; they created an army of nation builders who volunteered to clean up the streets; they created a security system that protected them against hoodlum as government shirk its responsibilities.

Unfortunately, these gallant heroes lost some patriots in Lekki, Ogbomosho and Surulere.

Characteristically, instead of the government to show true sincerity in tackling the issues that propelled the protests, they went on information gagging spree. First, they fined AIT, Channels and Arise TV.

Their spotlights are now on regulating social media platforms. “We need a social media policy that will regulate what should be said and posted and what should not. We also need technology and resources to dominate our social media space,’’ he said,” so says Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Information.

Not to be outdone, Desmond Elliot, a lawmaker in the Lagos House of Assembly, said, “In the next five years, there will be no Nigeria if we don’t act now.”
Indeed, Lai Mohammed and Desmond Elliot new found passion to gag the press would boomerang on them.

I can't but find a parallel between Obasanjo's Decree 78 of 1976 and the ongoing vigorous call for the regulation of the social media space by the Minister of Information and the Lagos lawmaker because of the exigencies of the moment and need to gag the vibrant and some rancorous voices on social media that propelled the peaceful #EndSARS protests across Nigeria.

Obasanjo's decree of 1976 was enacted in the heat of the moment when he was the Head of State but it was not until 1995 that the same decree was used to nail him in the phantom coup trial by the Abacha junta.

Lai Mohammed and Desmond Eliot need to know that what goes around comes around.

They may succeed in pushing down our throat an autocratic law gagging the free flow of information on social media, but they need to understand that the night can't go on forever, the bright morning is coming!

A time is coming when they would need this same social media to advance their political agenda, but that same law would haunt them and may be used to silence them when that time comes.

The Yoruba says, Ori bibe ko ni ogun ori fifo (meaning - beheading is not an antidote to headache). The best way to regulate social media and reduce the venom from those platforms is good governance.

The government's information managers should buckle down and put on their thinking caps and devise strategies to engage the millions of angry Nigerian youth, who are disillusioned with their leaders at all levels of governments.

Samuel O. Adeyemi, a media strategist, writes from Lagos

Opinion AddThis : Original Author : Samuel O. Adeyemi Disable advertisements :
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Protesters Paint #ENDSARS On Floor Of Abuja Airport, Police Headquarters

Nigerian youth calling for an end to police brutality and extrajudicial killings in the country on Sunday stormed the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, to paint #ENDSARS on the floor of the facility's entrance.

The protesters arrived the international wing of the airport with paints and brush to carry out the task.

The act was disrupted for few minutes when personnel of the Nigerian Air Force attached to the airport made attempts to stop the group but were vehemently resisted.

The situation led to a heated argument as the protesters stood their grounds, vowing not to be intimidated by the law enforcement agents.

The protesters later moved to the Nigeria Police Force headquarters where they also painted EndSARS on the floor of the entrance of the facility.

The youth vowed not to back down on their demand for justice for all victims of police brutality in the country including those that were killed at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos.

Some prominent activists, who took part in Sunday's march include Omoyele Sowore, Deji Adeyanju, Raphael Adebayo, Sidney Usman and several others.

#EndSARS ACTIVISM News AddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
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UPDATE: 16 Dead, Seven Injured After Truck Lost Control, Rammed Into Market In Ondo

A total of 16 persons died while seven others were left injured on Saturday after a truck lost control and rammed into traders and pedestrians at Ibaka Market at Akungba Akoko, Akoko South-West Local Government Area of Ondo State, the FRSC has said.

Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Boboye Oyeyemi, stated this on Sunday while lamenting the huge loss of lives and damage to properties caused by the accident.

Oyeyemi, who spoke through a statement by Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, said the accident was caused by brake failure.

The statement reads, "The crash occurred at about 6:30pm on Saturday, 31 October, 2020, when a DAF truck loaded with bags of rice rammed into the stalls in the market and crashed into a Toyota Camry saloon car, Toyota Corolla and three motorcycles.

"The crash involved a total of 23 people comprising of 11 male adults, three male children, seven female adults, and two female children.

"Out of the 23 people involved, a total of seven people comprising of three male adults,
three female adults, and one male child were rescued with different degrees of injuries and taken to the hospital.

"While 16 people got killed comprising eight male adults, two male children, four female adults, and two female children and the dead bodies have been deposited at Specialist Hospital, Ikare, and General Hospital, Iwaro Oka, mortuaries respectively by FRSC emergency rescue teams."

Oyeyemi thereafter urged the administrators of local governments in the country to begin relocating markets from the highways, noting that it would also help the existing operational efforts of the FRSC.

He added that the move was part of plans by the safety corps to make highways safer and eradicate all incidences of road traffic crashes and its attendant fatalities.

According to the Corps Marshal, the FRSC was concerned with the rising statistics of citizens losing their lives as a result of markets being built close to highways.

He advised road users to maintain their vehicles regularly and adhere to prescribed speed limits at all times.

Accident News AddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
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Gunmen Storm Nasarawa Hospital, Abduct Staff, Patients' Family Members

Gunmen suspected to be bandits have invaded a private hospital, Kunwarke Clinic and Maternity in Kan-Tsakuuwa, near Federal University Lafia, Nasarawa State, abducting five persons.

It was gathered that the gunmen, who came shooting sporadically to scare residents of the area, whisked away a staff of the hospital, Cletus Igube, and four relations of some patients.

Director of the hospital, a former Deputy Speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Elisha Agwadu, said the kidnappers came 30 minutes after he left the hospital.

Agwadu said, “The kidnappers contacted me this morning at about 6:30am and told me that this was the 26th time they had come after me without getting me. All we are demanding from you now if you don’t want your staff and others to be killed is N20m.

“They put a call through to me again at about 12:20pm demanding a ransom of N20m. They have asked me not to contact the police for anything.”

CRIME Insecurity News AddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
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Two NSCDC Personnel Die, One Injured In Ondo Road Accident

An auto accident has claimed the lives of two personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Ondo State.

The personnel were travelling in a space wagon in Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state when the accident occurred.

Olufemi Omole, spokesperson for the NSCDC in Ondo State, who confirmed the incident on Saturday, said one other officer was critically injured during the accident.

Omole explained that the personnel were returning from a burial ceremony when their vehicle veered off the road and somersaulted into a ditch.

He said the remains of the two officers had been deposited at the morgue of the Ondo State General Hospital while the injured had been taken to the Trauma Centre.

Omole said the surviving officer was still in a critical condition at the hospital and needed prayers to fully recover.

Accident News AddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
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Two NSCDC Personnel Die, One Injured In Ondo Road Accident

An auto accident has claimed the lives of two personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Ondo State.

The personnel were travelling in a space wagon in Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state when the accident occurred.

Olufemi Omole, spokesperson for the NSCDC in Ondo State, who confirmed the incident on Saturday, said one other officer was critically injured during the accident.

Omole explained that the personnel were returning from a burial ceremony when their vehicle veered off the road and somersaulted into a ditch.

He said the remains of the two officers had been deposited at the morgue of the Ondo State General Hospital while the injured had been taken to the Trauma Centre.

Omole said the surviving officer was still in a critical condition at the hospital and needed prayers to fully recover.

Accident News AddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
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#ENDSARS: Police Officer Broke Two Of My Teeth, Man Tells Lagos Judicial Panel

Mr Olajide Fowotade has narrated to the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry how a police officer brutalised and removed two of his upper front teeth.

Fowotade, while explaining his encounter with the police, said one officer named Ayo and attached to Ketu Police Division, assaulted him until he became unconscious.

He added that after regaining consciousness, he was taken to the police station where the assault and brutalisation continued by the officer.

He said, “On the 11th of March, 2017, I was coming from my workplace and at Ketu bus-stop on the road linking to the expressway, there is a tricycle park.

“That day, some tricycle riders were turning in front of me, so I waited for them.

“I just heard some motorcycle riders coming from behind banging my car and shouting that I should go.

“I asked one of the motorcycle riders if he wanted me to hit the tricycle rider and he shouted at me, asking if I knew who he was. I never knew he was a police officer who went to arrest motorcycle riders.

“He came to my front and started beating and punching me. My wife who was beside me was restraining me and when the hitting became too much, I came down from my car.

“On getting down from my car, one officer held my hand while Officer Ayo gave me head-butt on my mouth.

“The next thing I knew, two of my teeth fell and I fainted immediately.”

He added that he was taken to Ketu Police Station where the officer kicked and assaulted him until he was rescued by other policemen.

He informed the panel that the Divisional Police Officer reprimanded the officer and asked that he was taken to hospital for immediate treatment after which he was subsequently released.

He prayed the panel to help him get justice and demanded compensation of N3m as expenses for his medical treatment.

#EndSARS Human Rights Police News AddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
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