BIAFRA NEWS & UPDATES: NIGERIA FEDERAL GOVERNMENT UNDER FIRE ON BIAFRA
Attah , Onitsha
The Federal Government, yesterdy, came
under acerbic attack from the Ekiti State
Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose and the
aide to former president Goodluck
Jonathan, Reno Omokri, over its claim
that disgruntled politicians and treasury
looters were behind the Independent
People of Biafra (IPOB), the separatist
group led by Nnamdi Kanu.
Minister of Information, Mohammed had
said looters and disgruntled elements in
the opposition were the chief sponsors
of IPOB.
But in their seperate reactions, Fayose
and Omokri challenged the minister to
disclose names of the treasury looters he
claimed were sponsoring the group.
According to Fayose, it was high time
Nigerians began to hold the minister
accountable for his claims, which he
described as frivolouss.
“Lai Mohammed is fast becoming the
Liar-General of the federation, having lied
to gain power and still lying to sustain it.
More than 20 months after he claimed
that 55 Nigerians stole over N1.34 trillion
from the country’s treasury from 2006 to
2013, Lai Mohammed is yet to tell
Nigerians who the 55 people are,”
Fayose said in a statement issued by his
aide on Public Communications and New
Media, Lere Olayinka.
He described the minister as an
embodiment of contradictions, who
speaks from several sides of his mouth,
turning himself to a vegetable while
struggling to defend a government that
has done more evil than good to Nigeria
and its people.
“If he (Lai Mohammed) is able to read
through his past comments and
juxtapose them with his present
comments, he will realise the
contradiction that he has become. On
June 10, 2013, Lai Mohammed spoke
against the proscription of Boko Haram,
saying that it stifled the press and
tampered with the fundamental human
rights of Nigerians. He also spoke in
support of true federalism and
restructuring of Nigeria. But today, in
defence of President Muhammadu
Buhari’s government, everything Lai
Mohammed supported then, he is now
against and what he was against then, he
now supports.
“It is shameful that Lai Mohammed now
runs speedily to defend the Lion King and
his autocratic government, so that he
won’t be devoured, and in the process of
trying to avoid being sacked, he is
manufacturing lies like pure water.”
Reacting, the former president’s aide
also lambasted the minister for saying
the activities of IPOB started because
Jonathan lost the 2015 election.
“The insinuations in the press conference
given by Minister of Information, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, on Sunday, accusing the
opposition of sponsoring the IPOB and
the fact that he mentioned that Nnamdi
Kanu preached Nigerian unity during the
administration of former president
Goodluck Jonathan is another clear
indication that the present administration
has not left propaganda mode for proper
agenda mode two and a half year into
their tenure.
“If the government, in which Lai
Mohammed serves knows which
opposition members are sponsoring
IPOB, then they should identify them,
arrest them and then prosecute them.”
He wondered if Saraki, who is a member
of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
could be said to be a sponsor of IPOB
since he had also flayed its proscription
.
“It is our suspicion that Lai Mohammed
is talking from history seeing as he
criticised the Jonathan government for
banning Boko Haram in a statement he
released on June 10, 2013, even though
the Jonathan government had gone
through due process before proscribing
that murderous sect. Perhaps, Lai
Mohammed thinks everybody is like him
and those he represents.”
Omokri asked the minister to concentrate
more on serving the nation than on
propaganda.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has
insisted that it was not only aware of
sources of funding of IPOB, but has put
machinery in place to block them.
Speaking on a live TV programme,
yesterday, Mohammed said: “Terrorists
do not publish where their funding are
coming from. But we know the countries
that are supporting IPOB. We know the
sources of their funding though I am not
at liberty to disclose them here. We are
taking steps to block them and we are
also taking a lot of diplomatic actions in
respect of the countries that are
supporting them.”
He said most of the countries supporting
the group were doing so based on
ignorance, as they may had been
hoodwinked into believing that Nigeria
was a country where Muslims persecute
Christians and a country where there is
genocide.
“As we speak today, IPOB has written
letters to many governments outside
Nigeria, international parliaments sending
fake and cloned videos claiming there is
genocide in Nigeria.”
Reactiong, the Pentecostal Fellowship
of Nigeria (PFN) frowned at the
deployment of military to tackle IPOB.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos,
National President of PFN, Rev. Felix
Omobude, said the deployment was an
error, as it was not the function of the
military to tackle civil agitation in a
democracy.
“We believe in a nation where people
have the right for agitation, which should
be carried out within the confines of the
law. PFN sees the use of the military to
quash civil agitation as a dark cloud in
our democratic process. We don’t
encourage it. We prefer that the
government should equip the police to
handle civil unrest.”
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