I.P.O.B knocks Facebook managers for blocking Kanu’s account

 

The proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has condemned the blocking of Facebook page of its Leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu following his live broadcast last Tuesday night.

The group described the action as not only baffling but too petty, wondering why a global social media giant like Facebook would allow itself to be used by agents of oppression in Nigeria to suppress the truth.

A statement from its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, IPOB said Facebook only succeeded in partnering with perpetrators of human rights abuses and other criminal activities masterminded by the Nigeria State against innocent citizens.

It warned that no matter how hard the message of its leader was supressed, the struggle for Biafra liberation would not be slowed down, urging its teeming audience to follow Kanu on other IPOB’s numerous platforms.

The statement partly read, “We strongly condemn this attitude of Facebook Managers in Lagos and Abuja who collude with corrupt Nigerian government officials to suppress free flow of Information via their platform.

“This unconscionable and reprehensible attitude amounts to partnering with perpetrators of human rights abuses and other criminal activities masterminded by the Nigeria State against innocent citizens.

“The federal government and its foot soldiers – terrorist herdsmen and bandits – have continued to subjugate indigenous nations in the country including Biafrans with the intent for conquest. These foot soldiers on daily basis unleash all sorts of mayhem on the innocent and hapless indigenous peoples while the federal government mischievously remains docile.

“These vampires masquerading as herdsmen have forcibly seized our forests and converted our farms to grazing fields for their cattle. They have equally turned our ancestral lands to slaughterhouses where they kill with impunity in most dehumanising manners, innocent locals going about their legitimate business.

“They commit these crimes unchallenged by security operatives. They kidnap for ransom, maim and rape our women. They feed their cattle with our crops, and Facebook is saying we don’t have a right to cry out?

“Now that our Leader has started exposing the atrocities of these wolves in human clothing, Facebook have decided to be an accomplice to mass murder and oppressive tendencies of Fulani Janjaweed rulers of Nigeria.

“Why should Facebook block the account of the leader of the largest peaceful mass movement in the world for speaking the bitter truth people are too terrified to talk about? Why hasn’t Facebook prevailed on the perpetrators of these heinous crimes in Nigeria to stop their atrocities instead of denying innocent victims media access?

“Facebook is quick to fall for the lie of agents of oppression and accuse us of hate speech but fails to realise that hate action begets hate speech if in Facebook lexicon, bitter truth translates to hate speech.

“This unholy act is only akin to what Britain and her allies did to Biafra during the Genocidal War of 1967-70 when they imposed land, air and media blockade on Biafra in order to deny the truth about the ongoing genocide from coming out.

“But our message to Facebook is simple: no matter how hard you try to suppress the gospel of truth being preached by our leader, the struggle for Biafra liberation cannot be slowed down. On the contrary, our efforts will be intensified because Biafra restoration is a divine mandate that must be accomplished in this era.

“We are very resolute in our resolve to restore Biafra and will not be deterred. If you like block all Biafran activists on your platform, we shall keep pushing on until Biafra is fully restored.

“We therefore, wish to encourage our leader’s teeming global audience to follow him and hook up to his live broadcasts via IPOB’s numerous other platforms. Our leader can be followed through many other platforms such as: Twitter YouTube, IPOB Community Radio app, Radio Biafra app, Satellite and FM.

“May we therefore remind all those local staff of Facebook in Lagos and Abuja that but for Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB, their families in their communities would have today been overrun by herdsmen and terrorists. An accomplice to a cruel man will surely get the reward of cruelty!”

Biafrans hails Southeast Governors’ ban on open grazing

 

The leadership of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has applauded the governors of the southeast states for banning open grazing in the region.

IPOB in a statement on Tuesday by its Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful thanked the governors for respecting the wishes of the people of the zone.

According to the group, had the governors of the southeast summoned the courage to ban the activities of the Fulani herdsmen, the region, would have averted the menace of the killer herdsmen in the region.

“We the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, ably led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to salute the courage of South East Governors for heeding our Leader’s call to ban open grazing in the region. We received with delight the news of a statement credited to the Chairman of South East Governors’ Forum, Dave Umahi, to the effect that open grazing has been banned in all states of the zone.

“IPOB wishes to acknowledge the wisdom of the governors to respect the people’s will for the first time. If the governors had not been seized by useless fear and trepidation over the Fulani before now, our region wouldn’t have been in this mess.”

IPOB in the statement while urging all herdsmen in Biafra land irrespective of their tribe to restrict themselves to the law of the land or relocate to regions where open grazing is allowed said that they would start enforcing the law against open grazing throughout the southeast as soon as the 14 Days ultimatum earlier issued by the leader of the group; Nnamdi Kanu expires.

It added, “We therefore, want to aver, and assure the governors that our gallant Eastern Security Network, ESN, will ensure strict enforcement of the ban which is also in line with a subsisting but neglected judicial pronouncement in 1969.

“At the expiration of the two-week ultimatum already issued by our Leader for open grazing to end in Biafra land, IPOB and ESN will move in to deal with any herder flouting the law.

“Since the law enforcement agents are too weak or have wittingly failed to enforce the ban, we can no longer afford to sit idly and watch the wanton destruction of lives and crops of our people.

“ESN will do the needful. We shall no longer allow law breakers to have a field day after inflicting physical and economic harm on innocent victims.

“The 12 Northern Muslim States already have their Hisbah police enforcing their Sharia law yet they claim Nigeria is one. Alcoholic beverages worth millions of Naira belonging to Biafrans doing their legitimate business in those states have been callously destroyed by these overzealous elements and nothing happened.

“Yet some wicked mortals masquerading as herders are daily openly grazing their cattle on our farms, kidnapping our folks for ransom, killing and rapping our mothers and sisters. The security agents not only show blind eye to these unimaginable criminality but sometimes provide cover for the perpetrators.

“We, therefore, wish to remind all herders in Biafra land that the era of occupying our forests and grazing on our farms is gone. They have to vacate our forests and relocate to cities where other human beings live.

“Wandering about with cows can no longer be tolerated on Biafra soil. Anyone interested in cattle rearing will either build a ranch as obtains in civilized societies or leave Biafra land. Do not say you are not warned!

“We advise all herdsmen in Biafra land irrespective of their tribe to restrict themselves to the law of the land or relocate to regions where open grazing is allowed. Our patience will elapse after the expiration date of the 14-day ultimatum by our Leader.”

Nnamdi Kanu's Facebook account removed for hate speech

 

Facebook says it removed the page of Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu for violating its rules on harm and hate speech.

Mr Kanu's page was removed for repeated violation of its community rules, the social networking site told the BBC.

He had posted a video of a militia group attacking and killing cattle in a herders' settlement.

He also used the live broadcast to accuse herders of destroying farmlands in eastern Nigeria.

The conflict between herders and other groups is currently one of Nigeria's hottest political issues.

Mr Kanu leads the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), which campaigns for independence for Nigeria's south-eastern region, where the ethnic Igbo people form the majority.

The herders are mostly from the northern Fulani community.

• Mr Kanu, who also has British nationality, used his Facebook page as a key platform to communicate with his followers around the world.

The account was blocked on Tuesday.

'Suppressing the truth'

The militia carrying out the attack in the video he posted are suspected to be from the Eastern Security Network, which Mr Kanu set up.

A Facebook spokesperson told BBC Igbo: "In line with our rules, we removed Nnamdi Kanu's page for repeatedly posting content that break those Community Standards, including content that violated our rules on coordinating harm and hate speech."

Who are Ipob?

• Founded by Nnamdi Kanu in 2014
• Proscribed as a terrorist group by Nigeria in 2017
• The group wants states in south-east Nigeria, made up mainly of people from the Igbo ethnic group, to break away and form the independent nation of Biafra
• Mr Kanu was arrested in 2015 in Nigeria and spent more than a year-and-a-half in jail without trial on treason charges
• At least 150 Ipob members were killed by Nigerian security forces between August 2015 and August 2016, according to Amnesty International
• Mr Kanu, a British citizen, jumped bail and fled the country in 2017

How will this ban affect Nnamdi Kanu?

By Chiagozie Nwonwu, BBC Igbo, Lagos

Before the ban by Facebook, he created an app called Ipob Community Radio and asked his followers to get on it.

With this app, Mr Kanu bypasses social media censorship.

He's also asked his followers to move to Twitter but if he continues with the same rhetoric and controversial comments, he might not last long there.

He however appears to be more measured on Twitter, where he is currently trying to get verified.

At the moment he's likely to resort to using the Facebook accounts of Ipob and Radio Biafra and the hundreds of Ipob-affiliated pages, which are not affected, but it would be interesting to see if he changes his tone.

But since that's his selling point, this is probably unlikely.

BIAFRA : Igbos may not produce President with people like Kanu, Nwodo – Junaid Mohammed

 

Junaid Mohammed, Second Republic lawmaker, has faulted the claim that 2023 was the time for the Southeast to produce Nigeria’s next president in 2023.

Mohammed said the Southeast would find it difficult to produce Nigeria’s President with people like Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and former President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nwodo.

He described Kanu and Nwodo as gangsters’ and scoundrels who may impede the chances of the Southeast.

Speaking with , Mohammed noted that the Southeast would need to form a coalition with other regions to produce the country’s President.

According to Muhammad: “I have never believed in this abstract called zoning and rotation of presidency.

“If the Igbos believe they have a candidate good enough, they are allowed to contest.

“For some years now, the Igbo ethnic group has been making some claims that they must produce the president, there must be restructuring without them telling us the meaning of restructuring and that the geopolitical zones should be converted into regions.

“The reality is that their position is apolitical and nonsensical. I have no doubt that they can’t on their own bring about any change no matter who they associate with.

“The idea that you will play politics on the basis of an ethnic group is unfortunate. The rest of Nigeria must make sure they allow you to produce the president ab-initio.

“We are talking about a country of 200million people, who are you as a group, individual or a zone that the nation must concede the presidency to you ab-initio?

“Look at the elections of 1999, Obasanjo would not have won that election with his own ethnic group, the Yorubas if he had relied on their votes. In most of the states and local governments the election held; even in his Owu ward, Obasanjo did not win. I was with him physically and I know his reaction.

“So you can see clearly that if anybody is to rely on his own ethnic group, local government, region or religion then none of those who did would be able to produce the president of Nigeria.

“The president of Nigeria can only be produced by some coalition of people who have the understanding of themselves.

“But, the idea that we should now concede the presidency to some people simply because they have an understanding with IPOB, a terrorist under Kanu and some hypocrites like John Nwodo and co who are the political wing of IPOB then you expect people to vote for you. If they want to produce the president, they have the constitutional right to do so but not at the exclusion of other Nigerians.

“I remember in 2006, Nwodo came to Kano with a delegation and we held a meeting in the house of one-time Governor of Kaduna State, Brig. Jafaru Isa and Nwodo went on his knees begging that he should make him the president and I asked what he has to offer because only Kano can’t make him the president, he said yes that he was the president of student union in Ibadan, what else nothing.

“Now are these the kind of characters they are sending to us to vote as president? Despite serving two military administration’s, Nwodo recently went to London and said the Nigerian constitution should be condemned which they produced.

“Now if you have gangsters’ and scoundrels like this in politics who are always in alliances with organisations like Boko Haram or IPOB, OPC then you can see we have a long way to go.”

Nigerians won’t make the mistake of returning APC to power IN 2023 – Wike

  

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said the federal government constituted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) has done so badly that Nigerians will not make the mistake of returning it to power in 2023.

He stated this during a visit to his Adamawa State counterpart, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri on Thursday.

“PDP states are doing very well and some are angry. Let them show what they are doing instead of being angry,” Wike said.

He boasted that the PDP would take over government at the federal level come 2023 because APC has proved itself to be a failure and Nigerians would not make the mistake of returning it to power.

Wike made the boasts to newsmen after inspecting some projects being executed by his host Governor Fintiri, particularly the two flyover bridges under construction around the state capital, Yola.

The governor had expressed the surprise that so much could be done in an apparently resource-scarce state like Adamawa.

“I am shocked. I am overwhelmed by what I have seen,” Wike said during an interview with newsmen after touring the second of two flyovers under construction upon his arrival in Yola.

Fintiri, who received Wike at the International Airport, Yola, had immediately taken the visiting governor to the nearby flyover site around the city’s main market called Total Junction, after which the convoy toured the second flyover site at the part of Yola famously called Police Roundabout.

Wike, who rode round the project sites with Fintiri, told the newsmen further, “I was asking him (Fintiri) where he got the money to do these projects. To say he has done well is an understatement. He has done exceedingly well.”

FA rules in Arsenal’s appeal against David Luiz’s red card

 

The Football Association has thrown out Arsenal’s appeal against the red card David Luiz picked up during a 2-1 defeat at Wolves on Tuesday.

Luiz was sent off for the third time in his Gunners career, after being adjudged to have committed a last-man foul on Wolves striker Jose by referee Craig Pawson.

Manager Mikel Arteta had been “very hopeful” of overturning the decision, adding that putting the blame on Luiz for the incident “isn’t fair”.

Arsenal have accepted the FA’s decision, but insist they are “disappointed that our appeal has been unsuccessful”.

However, Southampton will have defender Jan Bednarek available for their game against Newcastle on Saturday, after his red card against Manchester United was overturned.

Referee Mike Dean initially awarded a spot-kick, but only checked for a possible red card offence on the VAR pitchside monitor.

Rules state if last-man defenders bring down attackers without attempting to play the ball, they will be sent off.

Dean opted to show Bednarek a red, though the centre-back did not agree with the decision.

NEWS UPDATE : Police burst prostitution racket in India, rescue 12 Nigerian girls

 

The Police in India has said it raided a massive sex racket and rescued 12 Nigerian girls forced into prostitution.

Police Commissioner Krishna Prakash said they had received information about foreigners operating a prostitution racket from a building in Omkar Colony in Morya Park.

Prakash said men of the force immediately visited the apartment and found that a prostitution racket was being run from there by Nigerian nationals.

He said a raid was carried out and 16 Nigerian women were taken into police custody after which 12 were released.

The Police Commissioner said valuables worth Rs 82,920 were seized from their possession during the raid.

“After collecting concrete information, on Tuesday night we sent four decoy customers to the flat in Pimple Gaurav.

“The 12 rescued Nigerian women have been sheltered at the Rescue Foundation in Hadapsar, Pune after medical examination.

“The police are verifying the passports and visas of the women and further investigation is underway,” he said.