The Indeginous People of Biafra (IPOB) has declared Ohaneze Ndigbo and the South-East Governors complicit in the recently announced Operation Python Dance 3 by the Nigerian Army.
Speaking on behalf of IPOB, its publicity secretary, Emma Powerful wondered why the governors and Ohaneze Ndigbo have kept silent on the issue of the operation the army again plans to carry out in the South-East.
The group had earlier given a directive for a sit-at-home protest on September 14th 2018 to protest the alleged mass killings of innocent easterner by the Nigerian army.
He added that, despite the fact that they were still burying their dead from the last operation, they were once again faced with yet another Operation Python Dance meant to kill more innocent and defenceless easterners.
He said “at a time when we are still burying those Operation Python Dance 2 killed and dumped in mass graves across Biafraland in September 2017, here we are today with Nigeria military once again poised to invade the South East, to slaughter the weak and innocent in their annual genocidal ritual in the name of yet another Operation Python Dance 3.”
Condemning the silence by Ohaneze Ndigbo and the South-East governors, Emma Powerful said “No sane society or a people worth their salt will tolerate such brazen conquest and humiliation. What was once considered a reprehensible abomination in Igboland is now the norm. Mass death and destruction of South East and South South by the Nigerian Army has become so commonplace that our senses have become numb to these atrocities. The discovery of a mass grave in Igboland is no longer considered an abomination. How times have changed the values of a once great race.
“Anybody still in doubt as to the physical and psychological damage the traitors called Igbo socio-cultural and political leaders in Ohanaeze Ndigbo and South East Governors Forum have done and are still causing to the masses should look no further than their silence in the face of the threat of Operation Python Dance 3. Why are they quiet over such overwhelming threat to the lives and properties of those they claim to be leading, given that Operation Python Dance means death for hundreds of unarmed non-Muslim men and women in the South East?”
He noted that despite having what they termed a crucial meeting on the 2nd of September, the South-East governors did not say one word about the invasion of the region by the Army.
“South East governors met on Sunday 2 September 2018 for what we understand to be a crucial meeting. They rose from that gathering without uttering a word or issuing a statement of condemnation of Operation Python Dance 3 because they are part of it. These corrupt, self serving politicians are nothing more than Arewa agents in our land whose complicity in the destruction of the Igbo race in particular and Biafra in general can no longer be hidden. They did nothing about the mass murder of their people in September 2017 in Afaraukwu, they never uttered a word when our grand mothers were thoroughly humiliated by a single Fulani man in Owerri, now they have kept silent again as armored tanks and machine guns of the caliphate roll into the peaceful South East to commence another round of state sanctioned slaughter and mayhem. These charlatans don’t know what leadership means.
“The general strike called for by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on 14 September 2018 is to express our anger and at the same time respect the memory of those killed, tortured and disappeared by the Buratai led Nigeria army through Operation Python Dance 2 which occurred on the 14th of September 2017 in Isiama Afaraukwu Umuahia Abia State. Our anger is also directed at Igbo politicians and Ohaneze Ndigbo in particular that conspired with the Fulani Islamic army of Nigeria to invade the home of our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu with the sole intention of killing him and his parents. One year on, we are still asking for the whereabouts of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his aged parents.
“The unfathomable abomination and desecration of our land by a common Fulani Police Commissioner acting in concert with the northern governor of Imo State brought home the hopelessness and slave status of the people of the east. It has never been recorded in the history of post-independence Nigeria that grand mothers up to 70 years of age were locked up in prison overnight. Shamefully, the Igbo race has acquired another dubious distinction of being the very first people to have their women publicly humiliated and stripped of every shred of human dignity. Who knows what will come next.”
“Had it been it was an Igbo Police Commissioner in Kano that ordered the mere interception, not to talk of arrest, of Hausa-Fulani women, every Igbo business in core Arewa north will be up in flames. Countless southerners would have been slaughtered by now in an orgy of bloodbath and violence because the honour of Hausa-Fulani has been slighted. The Igbo Police Commissioner would have been summoned to the Emir’s palace to kneel in apology to the women. His police residence would have been burnt down. He would have been stripped of his rank, sent packing from Kano if he’s lucky to escape with his life. But in Igboland, the cowardice and impotence of informants and collaborators in Ohaneze Ndigbo and Igbo governors forum, masquerading as leaders, have sold the masses down the river. No shame, no honour, no dignity for the Igbo race in Nigeria. South East and South South is a conquered territory. This is what we are protesting on the 14th of September 2018.
“We IPOB and by extension the people of Biafra are against how our mothers were treated in Owerri, we are against the upcoming Operation Python Dance 3, hence our resolve to paralyse every movement across Biafraland. This era will be remembered as the age when Igbo men in position of power and leadership, conspired with our northern oppressors, to kill those (IPOB) fighting to liberate them.
“It is the height of insensitivity that at a time when we are discovering more mass graves, burial sites, missing persons and general disquiet over the humiliation and treatment of our mothers, South East governors, Ohaneze Ndigbo and some misguided politicians have decided to allow another major killing spree to take place in Biafraland under the cover of Operation Python Dance 3. They won’t even allow us to finish burying those they killed last year before launching another attack on our communities. This is why we must resist the invaders and their collaborators by observing the general strike called for the September 14.”