DHQ pitches South against North over tag of IPOB as terrorist group

MANY Nigerians have condemned the designation of members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) as terrorists by the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), wondering why the Fulani herdsmen were not so declared in spite of their murderous activities.

The United Nations, in its Global Terrorism Index report of in 2015, designated the Fulani herdsmen as the fourth deadliest terror group in the world, coming closely behind IS and Boko Haram.

The criticisms against IPOB designation as a terror group and the deployment of soldiers to South-East were dominant in responses to an opinion poll survey on Nigerian Tribune’s Facebook page.

An analysis of the over 2, 000 comments submitted as of the time of filing this report showed division along ethnic lines with most respondents from the northern part of the country supporting the actions taken by the DHQ, contrary to the views expressed by respondents from other parts of the country.

One of the respondents, Timothy Faboade, said: “We are yet to really get the definition of “terrorism” and its variants in Nigeria. The government comes out at will to talk without enough knowledge of what it is talking about. The Fulani herdsmen carry weapons, kidnap, kill people and destroy farm produce. They are not terrorists according to government and security forces.

“IPOB is yet to raise an arm against the government. It believes so much in non-violent approach to achieving its goals. Yet the Nigerian Army declared the group a terrorist one. It is a colossal error to make such an unprecedented declaration,” he said.

“It is quite unfortunate that we have lost it. Who is the military to declare IPOB a terrorist organisation? A Federal High Court of competent jurisdiction has said IPOB is not an illegal organisation,” said Donatus Otti.

However, Sani Nadada, challenged those condemning the action “to wear anything that has Biafran logo and move on the streets; then we will know who has right and who doesn’t to proscribe and declare an organisation/person as terrorist or not.

According to Alhaji Ahmad,  “Kanu [IPOB leader] is a contractor. His mission is to destroy the South-East like Shekau did to North-East and Nigeria at large. What is Kanu’s investment anywhere in Nigeria? So, let us be wise.

See more reactions from Bashir Riyadh, Kelechi David Okoroji, Ale Kado, Hussaini Yusuf Ahmed, Nimrod Michael Nims, Abubakar Ahmad, Abduraman Idris, Maximilian Abuchi and thousands  of others  on https://www.facebook.com/Tribuneonline/?hc_ref=ARTprwMWWue5DdF0MjT6Ue87ENvzS2pIn7FhRjXWxlpkWG1Kz5OqCVb52stf4EcCUcs&fref=nf