BIAFRA NEWS : How Nigeria's Police IG, Usman Baba Now Threatens Country's Peace, Unity— Ex-US Ambassador

 

Campbell called on President Muhammadu Buhari to caution the IGP in the interest of national unity, while insisting that Operation Restore Peace launched by the police last week and the military’s clampdown on the IPOB members should be dissuaded by the Presidency in the interest of peace and unity of the country. 

A former US Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, has condemned a directive by the Inspector-General of the Police, Usman Baba, to policemen to clamp down on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and ignore the rules of engagement in the process. 

Campbell called on President Muhammadu Buhari to caution the IGP in the interest of national unity, while insisting that Operation Restore Peace launched by the police last week and the military’s clampdown on the IPOB members should be dissuaded by the Presidency in the interest of peace and unity of the country.John Campbell

The former US ambassador said, “The Nigerian government has launched Operation Restore Peace, designed to destroy the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist group in support of independence for the former breakaway Republic of Biafra, and its security wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN).

“According to Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Baba, the security services are not to be constrained by human rights considerations. In comments reported in the Nigerian media, he said, 'Don’t mind the media shout; do the job I command you. If anyone accuses you of human rights violation, the report will come to my table and you know what I will do. So, take the battle to them wherever they are and kill them all. Don’t wait for an order.' 

“'What another order are you waiting for when Mr. President had ordered you to shoot anybody carrying AK-47 rifle? Quote me, even a dead policeman can be tried and dismissed from the force and his family will not get his benefits. So, don’t sit and wait for them to come; take attack to them and don’t lose your arms to criminals.'

“So, the IGP is not only giving the green light to human rights violations, but also promising his protection for those who commit them. In addition, he is threatening those who might hang back with the loss of pension benefits. Usman is implying that he has the full support of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Other reporting alleges that security services are conducting house-to-house searches in Ebonyi, Imo, and Rivers states, all with large Igbo populations. Local people are saying that the security services are rounding up young men and their family members and taking them away for questioning. IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu has dubbed the police initiative 'Operation Massacre Biafrans'. 

“Usman Baba is a northern Muslim from Yobe State—long a Boko Haram stronghold. He is a career police officer. There is nothing in his background that would suggest an understanding of southern and eastern grievances and fears of the 'establishment of a Fulani Caliphate.' 

“Operation Restore Peace and Baba’s rhetoric would seem tailor-made to feed the revived Biafra secessionist movement and general southern and Christian fears of a Fulani-Muslim onslaught against Christians. It should be anticipated that local people will fight back viciously and the security services—as directed by Usman Baba—will respond in kind. It is to be hoped that President Buhari will repudiate Baba’s rhetoric and methods, not least for the sake of the unity of Nigeria.” 

BIAFRA NEWS : How Gunmen Killed Mother Of IPOB Lawyer, Okoroafor 3 Months After He Escaped Assassination

 

Madam Edith was returning from a church vigil and was only five minutes from her residence in Ekiti State when she was ambushed and gunned down. 

 

Gunmen believed to be working for political actors have attacked and shot dead Madam Edith Okoroafor, the mother of a top lawyer of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Barrister Richard Okoroafor, in Ekiti State.

SaharaReporters learnt on Tuesday that Madam Edith was returning from a church vigil and was only five minutes from her residence in Ekiti State when she was ambushed and gunned down.

 

Barrister Chukwuemeka Okoroafor buwanews.com

The IPOB lawyer’s mother was killed last Wednesday.

“Her assailants hid by the corner of her house waiting for her to return from a vigil. At about five minutes’ walk to her house, they shot her dead and escaped. He only sent me a short notice of her interment but hid how she was slain,” a source revealed.

“With grief in my heart but with total submission to God, I formally announce the death of my mother, who died on Wednesday. We shall be burying her in her hometown, Ekerawen in Agharho, Delta State, on Saturday,” the lawyer said in 

 

In the third week of February, there was an assassination attempt on Okoroafor’s life.

The IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, had accused the Nigerian Army of attempting to assassinate Okoroafor. 

Kanu had disclosed that Okoroafor was ambushed by men who came out of a white Hilux truck on Suleja-Bida highway on Thursday and opened fire on his car. 

Okoroafor, a legal counsel for IPOB, was leaving Alpha Military Commando Base in Suleja where he had gone to confirm an intelligence report regarding some Biafran agitators detained by the Nigerian Army, when he was attacked. 

Okoroafor was instrumental to the release of Obigbo women who were secretly abducted and taken to Abuja by the Nigerian Army in Rivers State in November and December 2020.

He had also dragged the former Chief of the Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai (retd.) to the International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands, over allegations of war crimes and extrajudicial killings in the military.

BIAFRA NEWS : IPOB, Ambazonia join forces to push breakup of Nigeria, Cameroon

 

TWO separatist movements pushing for secession in Nigeria and Cameroon have formed an alliance towards actualising their plan to force the breakup of the two countries.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which is agitating for the creation of an independent Biafran nation out of Nigeria, has joined forces with Ambazonia Governing Council, an armed separatist group fighting for the secession of Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West and South-West regions.

IPOB spokesman Emma Powerful confirmed the development on May 25 in an interview with The ICIR.

Powerful disclosed that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu and leader of the Ambazonia Governing Council Cho Ayaba in 2020.

The alliance will push IPOB to another level, Powerful told The ICIR.

The IPOB spokesman noted that the alliance had already gone far in so many things, but he did not provide details.

“Yes, it is true. The alliance will push us to another level, IPOB and Ambazonia signed MOU in October last year and this year, our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Ambazonia leader Dr Cho Ayaba had a joint press briefing and since then, the alliance has gone far in so many things,” he said in response to inquiries by The ICIR.

“We have assembled here today in front of our two peoples to declare our intentions to walk together to ensure collective survival from the brutal annexation that have occurred in our home nations.

“The Ambazonia and Biafra alliance is critical in an area where Nigeria and Cameroon have established two autocracies that have used violence as political tools to suppress our own peoples,” Ayaba said at the event, according to a report by Foreign Policy.

In recent years, IPOB has emerged at the forefront of groups seeking the actualisation of the defunct Biafra, which seceded from Nigeria in 1967, leading to a bloody civil war.

 

The Nigerian federal forces emerged victorious after three years of warfare and Biafra – comprising the South-East and parts of the South-South – remained part of Nigeria, but pro-Biafra agitation has continued over the years and appears to have turned violent in recent times.

The Eastern Security Network (ESN) – a military wing of IPOB which was set up to protect South-East communities from attacks by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen – is being blamed for attacks on federal security formations and establishments in the South-East.

In Cameroon, the Ambazonia Governing Council is one of the prominent armed separatist groups that are seeking to carve out Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West and South-West regions into a breakaway country known as Ambazonia.

The English-speaking part of Cameroon has nursed longstanding grievances over perceived domination and marginalisation by the French-speaking regions of the country.

The Ambazonia movement turned violent in 2016 when government’s security forces cracked down on teachers and lawyers protesting the marginalisation of Anglophone Cameroonians.

In response to the crackdown, armed separatist groups, which were largely funded by English-speaking Cameroonians living abroad, rapidly mobilised against government troops.

The Ambazonia struggle has since led to the displacement of over 700,000 people, and at least 4,000 civilian deaths, according to the United Nations and the International Crisis Group.

 

• IPOB, Ambazonia alliance involves weapon and personnel sharing, joint operations and training bases

The report by Foreign Policy quoted Deputy Defense Chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, the military wing of the Ambazonia Governing Council, Capo Daniel, as saying that the scope of the alliance would include joint operations and training bases.

The two separatist groups would also work together to secure their shared border and ensure an open exchange of weapons and personnel.

• Armed alliance between IPOB, Ambazonia could destabilise West and Central Africa

Daniel admitted in an interview with Foreign Policy that the alliance could destabilise West and Central Africa, with Nigeria being the largest economy in West Africa, and Cameroon, one of the major countries in Central Africa.

But he insisted that ‘Biafrans’ and ‘Ambazonians’ were cornered and had no choice than to fight to defend themselves.

Daniel said, “We have been very careful in our association with the Biafra movement, because we didn’t want to destabilise the region, but we have been cornered.

 

“The Nigerians have failed to act, the international community has failed to act, so we have no other choice but to get into an alliance that can better our chances to defend ourselves.”

Foreign Policy also reported that the Ambazonia Governing Council had promised to share lessons with IPOB on how the group was able to make the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon ‘ungovernable.’

The Foreign Policy report further observed that the alliance between the ‘two increasingly violent groups’ was likely to trigger a heightened response from both Cameroonian and Nigerian armed forces, which already worked together to counter the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern regions of both countries.

Interestingly, Nigeria has, in the past, aided the Cameroonian government in attempts to suppress the Ambazonia secession movement.

• IPOB, Ambazonia have common foe in Fulani herdsmen

Foreign Policy noted that just like IPOB, which considered the Fulani as foes, the ‘Ambazonians’ of the North-West region of Cameroon saw the Fulani as enemy.

Tensions between the Fulani and the ‘Biafrans’ and English-speaking Cameroonians date back decades.

Clashes between nomadic cattle-grazing Fulanis, known locally as Mbororos, and local sedentary farmers over land use, is commom in Cameroon’s North-West region.

According to the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), since 2019, various Ambazonian separatist groups had stolen hundreds of cattle, abducted at least 20 Mbororos and extorted an estimated 10 million Central African Francs ($18,600) in ransom payments, killing an estimated 50 herdsmen, and displacing more than 2,500 more Fulani civilians.

CHRDA also reported that Cameroonian security forces had funneled weapons to the Mbororo communities that had gone on to attack English-speaking farmers.

It was further reported that Fulani fighters, including some who had crossed the border from Nigeria to Cameroon, had been implicated in some of the conflict’s deadliest incidents.

In February 2020, armed Fulani men alongside Cameroonian military personnel attacked Ngarbuh village in the North-West region and killed 21 civilians, including 13 children. In February, armed Fulani raided 18 villages in Nwa subdivision, killing at least 17 people and displacing 4,200 local residents.

Attacks by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen on agrarian communities in Nigeria’s South-East have escalated in recent years, beginning with the ‘Nimbo massacre’ in which about 20 persons were killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen at Ukpabi Nimbo, an agrarian community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, in April 2016.

On March 29, about 25 persons were reportedly killed during an attack by suspected herdsmen at Obegu, a community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

In recent times, Fulani communities in the South-East have also come under reprisal attacks from suspected members of the ESN – the IPOB military wing.

 Foreign Policy noted that there was a big risk that the alliance between IPOB and Ambazonia would ignite cross-border ethnic violence that might have regional consequences.

BIAFRA NEWS : Nigeria, Rising Insecurity Leads to Growing Separatist Calls

 

ABUJA - Escalating insecurity and communal violence in Nigeria appear to be strengthening separatist movements across the country. Among those movements is the Indigenous People of Biafra, a group that advocates an independent state in a part of Nigeria that tried to break away more than 50 years ago.

On a typical Sunday evening, 73-year-old former Biafran fighter Ideyi Obasi sits in front of his shanty home in a low-income housing area of Abuja and sniffs his snuff.

He's grown popular in his area for often talking about his experience fighting the Biafran War in the late 1960s.

He said he has renewed hope for an independent Biafra.

"We used to stay two weeks without food. The only thing they'll give you is ogogoro (dry gin). You'll carry your kits and come out with your water bottle. They'll fill it up with ogogoro, you go there to fight. If you die, it's nobody's business," said Obasi.

Obasi was only 20 years old in 1967 when the civil war started and he got recruited.

The war lasted three years, and the Biafran movement was defeated. He says many of his friends were killed fighting the Nigerian state, but he somehow survived.

Today, he still supports secession, but said fighting must be avoided.

"Don't fight another war, because children will be finished. If they can do it amicably and peacefully,” he said.

In January, the separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB, launched an armed security unit. The aim was to push back on Fulani herders, who are often blamed for communal clashes in the region.

But Nigerian authorities consider the unit as subversive. Troops have cracked down on the armed group in states where it is active.

In 2017, the government banned IPOB’s activities, which are led by British Nigerian activist Nnamdi Kanu.

Some Nigerian political analysts such as Jibrin Ibrahim say IPOB’s demands for independence are unlikely to succeed.

"It's legitimate for them to make demands for separation. But the reality on the ground is that it's difficult for Nigeria to separate. We've been together for over a century. We have intermarried significantly. We have migrated extensively," he said.

In recent months, a Yoruba separatist group has appeared, calling for the creation of an independent state known as the Oduduwa Republic. The republic would include the southwestern parts of the country, including Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos.

Ibrahim said besides the insecurity, political marginalization is to blame for the rise of these separatist movements.

"A lot of Nigerians are very dissatisfied with the political community we have. They feel it is not structured to serve their interests. They feel there's significant levels of marginalization that makes their citizenship ineffective," he said.

Experts predict agitation by these movements will likely increase as the country heads toward elections in 2023. But they say the Nigerian government is unlikely to cede any power to the separatists — and a conflict will be too dangerous to pursue.

BIAFRA NEWS : IPOB's Nnamdi Kanu Hires Another U.S Lobbyist in N300 Million Deal

 

The deal appears to be part of Mr Kanu's quiet but broad efforts to win the support of U.S. government, congress, policymakers, and opinion leaders for IPOB.

The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has engaged new American lobbyists in a bid to secure the support of the U.S. for the separatist group.

If the deal runs for 12 months as agreed, it will cost Mr Kanu $750,000, which is over N300 million at the current official exchange rate.

PREMIUM TIMES on Monday obtained the details of the one-year deal which Mr Kanu signed with the BW Global Group (BWGG), LLC, earlier in February.

The firm, co-owned by Jeffrey Birrel and Alan White, is registered in Washington D.C, the U.S. capital city, which parades top government officials, lawmakers, policymakers, and opinion leaders, who are the targets of the deal.

The agreement, which took effect from March 1, came months after an earlier one struck by Mr Kanu with another U.S.-based lobbyist, Mercury Public Affairs, LLC, expired in September last year.

Under the old contract agreement, Mr Kanu was to pay $85,000 per month from September 23, 2019 to September 22, 2020, with $5,000 one-time compliance fee.

This implies that a full execution of the contract for 12 months, as it was agreed to run, would have cost Mr Kanu a total of $1,025,000, which is close to N400 million at the prevailing official exchange rate at the time.

In June last year, the Nigerian government fumed about the old deal which has now been replaced by the new one. The use of paid lobbyists to get the support of the U.S. government and its organs is legal in the country.

PREMIUM TIMES got the details of both the old and new IPOB deals from the contractors' registration statements and agreements filed at the Foreign Agents Registration of the U.S Department of Justice.

The registration, mandatory under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 and for "public disclosure", entails filing documents including, completed predesigned forms marked Exhibits A and B, and the agreements stipulating the full details of the contract.

Failure to provide this information is subject to the penalty and enforcement provisions established in Section 8 of the Act, it was stated on the documents.Services

The terms of the successive contracts with strict focus on the U.S appear to be part of Mr Kanu's quiet but broad efforts to win the support of U.S. government, Congress, policymakers, and opinion leaders for IPOB.

The filings by BW Global Group (BWGG) after the deal was hatched in February show that the firm was engaged by Mr Kanu to undertake "political activities" in the U.S. on behalf of IPOB.

The activities including engaging the U.S. government, the Congress, the Department of State, the equivalent of foreign affairs minister in other countries, and engaging policy makers on behalf of IPOB.

"The registrant (BWGG) expects to advocate on behalf of the IPOB within the US Government (including the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Department of State) and otherwise engage policy makers and opinion leaders," part of the registration statement marked Exhibit B reads.

The agreement signed on February 24 by Mr Kanu; a representative of IPOB, Rita Eze, and a co-owner of BWGG provides further details of what the job entails.

"BWGG shall provide the IPOB with services relating to the promotion of human rights and democracy and shall otherwise act as an advocate for the indigenous people of Biafra," the document read in part.

It added that BWGG "may also undertake other similar services that might be referred to BWGG from the IPOB from time-to-time by mutual agreement."

The deal has the same scope with the old one executed by Mercury Public Affairs, LLC

Under the old agreement which expired in September last year, the consultant was engaged to "provide strategic consulting and management services specific to issues facing the client in the areas of government relations and issues management."

Mode of payment

BWGG is expected to provide the agreed services under the new agreement to IPOB for a period of one year from March 1 through February 28, 2022.

The firm is to receive its payment for "professional services" of $750,000 based on monthly instalments.

But $100,000 is to be paid at the signing of the agreement covering the first two months - March and April 2021 - "leaving a balance of $650,000".

The balance of $650,000 "will be paid in monthly installments of $65,000 USD per month commencing on May 1,2021 and paid successively on the 1st of each month until the total fee of $750,000 USD has been paid to BWGG by the client."

"Payment to BWG shall be by bank wire or bank draft," the document added.

The firm, under the agreement "will provide monthly status reports as deliverables regarding the progress and status of the project."

IPOB

Mr Kanu, a British and Nigerian citizen, is engaging lobbyists to help in winning U.S support to overshadow bad publicity by many Nigerians and the Nigerian government.

His IPOB is known for its agitation for an independent Republic of Biafra, which has led to series of violent confrontation between its members and security agencies.

Mr Kanu wants an independent Republic of Biafra made up of Igbo-speaking people largely in the South-east part of Nigeri. He fled Nigeria in 2017 while enjoying the bail granted him during his treasonable felony trial.

He fled after the 2017 invasion of his home in Afara-Ukwu, Abia State, by security forces, following a clampdown on IPOB members by soldiers in the South-east region.

The Nigerian government, in the wake of the violence, on September 20, 2017, obtained a court order designating IPOB a terrorist group and proscribing it.

But despite that, the UK government granted asylum to Mr Kanu.

With the charges of treasonable felony still pending against him at the Federal High Court in Abuja, the Nigerian government has repeatedly fumed about the asylum granted him by the UK government.

Since leaving the country, Mr Kanu has continued to engage IPOB members through his social media channels, with government often attributing escalating violence in the South-east region to the group.

The group has been blamed for recent attacks on police officers and facilities as well as other public infrastructure in the South-south and South-east regions. Dozens of police officers have been killed in the past two months in such attacks.

IPOB has, however, denied responsibility for the attacks.

BIAFRA NEWS : N300 Million Deal. IPOB Confirms Hiring Firm To Lobby US To Facilitate Biafra Independence

 

N300 Million Deal: IPOB Confirms Hiring Firm To Lobby US To Facilitate Biafra Independence 

 

The Indigenous People of Biafra has confirmed that it has engaged an American firm in a N300 million deal to lobby the self-determination agitation of Biafra with the American government. 

PREMIUM TIMES has reported on Tuesday morning that the Nnamdi Kanu-led group has hired a lobbying firm in the United States to help win the support of the Joe Biden-led government in securing a Biafra sovereign nation.

It was said that the one-year deal is scheduled to last for 12 months and is costing Mr Kanu and IPOB $750,000, which is over N300 million at the current official exchange rate of N410 to one U.S. dollar.

PREMIUM TIMES is in possession of the contract papers which Mr Kanu signed with the BW Global Group (BWGG LLC), in February.

The firm, co-owned by Jeffrey Birrel and Alan White, is registered in Washington D.C, the US capital, which has a high concentration of top government officials, lawmakers, policymakers, and opinion leaders, who IPOB is trying to engage on the rightfulness and necessity of its cause.

The agreement, which took effect from March 1, 2021, came months after an earlier one struck by Mr Kanu with another U.S.-based lobbying entity, Mercury Public Affairs LLC, expired.

Under the old contract, IPOB, through Mr Kanu, paid $85,000 per month beginning September 23, 2019, in addition to a $5,000 one-time compliance fee.

That means Mr Kanu paid $1,025,000 for the 12-month contract, which is approximately N400million, based on the prevailing official exchange rate at the time (N380 to a dollar).

Reacting to the report on Tuesday, the IPOB’s spokesman, Emma Powerful told SaharaReporters that the Biafra separatist group hired a lobby firm in a N300 million deal to win the support of the US in fast-tracking the Biafra agitation.

“Yes, it’s true we hired another lobbying group in the USA to facilitate the coming and recognition of Biafra independence. We engaged them with the wholesome amount of N300 million about $750, 000 to lobby for Biafra freedom in America and the whole world,” Powerful disclosed to SaharaReporters on Tuesday morning.

Last June, the Nigerian government fumed at the deal, which it claimed was aimed at discrediting the country in the US and Europe.

PREMIUM TIMES got the details of both the old and new deals from the contractors’ registration statements and agreements filed at the Foreign Agents Registration Unit of the US Department of Justice. The registration, mandatory under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 and for “public disclosure”, entails filing documents, including completed predesigned forms marked Exhibits A and B, and the agreements stipulating the full details of the contract.

BIAFRA NEWS : Did Attahiru say there will be no Biafra, Oduduwa?

 

A few hours after Ibrahim Attahiru, chief of army staff (COAS), and 10 other officers died in an aircraft crash in Kaduna, on Friday, some reports began to circulate on social media that the late security chief once said there will be no Biafra or Oduduwa Republic as long as he is alive.

In a series of blog and social media posts in March, Attahiru was said to have said the army would deal with people agitating for secession in the country.

It was claimed he made the statement while speaking at the first commanding officers’ workshop in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state capital, earlier in the year.

“As long as I’m alive, there will be no Biafra or Oduduwa. We’re one Nigeria,” Attahiru was claimed to have said in March.

The claim has been reshared by different social media users after the death of the late chief of army staff was announced on Friday.

On Facebook, Leopold Onyeuwa wrote: “Power in the tongue! Need we any more prophesy to know what will happen? Man is not God. This man prophesied his own death in ignorance. Too bad! May his fellows learn from this.”

VERIFYING THE CLAIM

Going through online resources, it was ascertained that the first commanding officers’ workshop was held in Akwa-Ibom state capital in March — with Attahiru present.

On March 22, the media unit of the state government said Udom Emmanuel, the governor, received Attahiru at the government house in Uyo.

“The Chief of Army Staff is in the state for the First Commanding Officers’ Workshop 2021 with the theme “Repositioning The Nigerian Army To Defeat Contemporary Adversaries In A Joint Environment” hosted by 6 Division Nigerian Army at Ibom Hall, Uyo,” the media unit said in a statement.

Attahiru with Udom

According to several news stories from six national newspapers on the event, the late chief of army staff said he would “decisively deal with individuals or groups that threaten the peace, security and stability of our great nation.” However, none of the analysed news sources quoted Attahiru to have said, “as long as I’m alive, there will be no Biafra or Oduduwa. We’re one Nigeria”.

A statement by Mohammed Yerima, army spokesperson, on the event did not also contain such a quote.

VERDICT: No sufficient evidence, video or audio, to prove that Attahiru said there will be no Biafra or Oduduwa Republic as long as he lived. The statement credited to the late chief of staff can be classified as false.

Tags biafraChief of Army StaffFact Checkfake newsIbrahim Attahiru