Igbo youths under aegis of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council, OYC, has accused the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and it’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu, of doing more harm than good to the Igbo nation.
It also accused the group of acting out the scripts of politicians outside the Igbo land which they started with a North-East presidential candidate.
In a statement issued at the weekend by the Deputy President-General of the group, Obinna Achionye, the OYC warned the South East Governors not to enter into negotiations with the IPOB, which it noted was deploying different strategies to draw the attention of the international community to itself.
Achionye claimed that the popularity of the IPOB leader was a result of President Muhammadu Buhari’s poor handling of the nation’s economy which exposed the citizenry to acute hardship.
According to him, Kanu saw the lapses in Buhari’s handling of the country’s affairs and decided to capitalise on it.
The statement read in part: “Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide will expose all the commercial activities of the IPOB, as they have done more damage to Ndigbo than they appear to salvage the situation the Igbo currently find themselves since 2015.
“IPOB lost Igbo consciousness before the 2019 elections as they are doing the political bid of politicians outside Igbo land, which they started with a North-East presidential candidate.
“IPOB’s popularity before the 2019 elections waned when it destroyed its members’ Permanent Voter Cards and plotted the fall of Governors Umahi, Ugwuanyi and Ikpeazu.
“We urge the South-East governors to disregard any kangaroo committee set up to interface between them and the IPOB. There’s no reason for a backyard settlement until IPOB openly apologises to Ndigbo.
“When the South-East governors called its bluff over its antics, IPOB connived with enemies of Igbo to stage a failed revolution protest which was unsuccessful in the region. Now they have resorted to a violent approach to do the bidding of a presidential hopeful from outside Igboland to bring down all presidential hopefuls in Igboland ahead of 2023.
“We know how a former minister from Anambra State persuaded a northern presidential candidate to use IPOB’s nuisance to hoodwink Igbos into voting for the politician after visiting Nnamdi Kanu in Isreal.
“Nevertheless, we urge South-East governors not to negotiate with Nnamdi Kanu. Their blackmail and settlement strategies are dead on arrival.”