IPOB proscription: CSO protest in US Embassy over ambassador’s comment

A civil society organization, Stand Up for Peace Movement has called on the government‎ of the United States of America to respect Nigerian laws.

The CSO during a protest march to the US Embassy in Abuja over the comments of US government on the proscription of the activities of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) by the federal government said Nigeria is a sovereign nation which should be respected by the US.

Comrade Richard Augustin, National Coordinator of the peace movement‎ said it is ridiculous that the US Embassy was here in Nigeria all the time IPOB and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, saturated and suffocated the public space with hate speech and did not deem it fit to urge restraint.

“We know the US Outpost was monitoring the situation and would add the sin of habitual lies to its long list of transgressions if it claims otherwise.

“The Embassy was there when Kanu and IPOB bragged about possessing nuclear weapons that could decimate a third of Nigeria and it looked the other way even though we all know the same country would froth in the mouth each time North Korea and nuclear weapon occur in the same sentence, the movement said.

Furthermore, Augustine noted “The US should, on the strength of its experience from these host of failures, learn to do the right thing and be told in clear terms that Nigeria will continue to prove to be difficult for such as we respect our laws and must be protected at all times.

“If it cannot respect Nigerian law and institutions to acknowledge IPOB as a terror organization, which is registered as a business in its own domain, the nation should at the very least refrain from meddling with Nigeria’s ability to legitimately curtail the threats posed by this proscribed group.

“There is still room for the United States to stand on the right side of history by either declaring its neutrality or accepting that IPOB is what Nigerian laws say it is, a terror organization that must be immediately dismantled. The United States will do well to stay out what it is not competent to interfere with.”

Augustine said the charge of the group is to Nigerians to for once shake off any sense of mental and psychological shackles.

He said if the US were as all-powerful they would have been able to deal with the tens of daily deaths from gun violence in their country.

“We, therefore, state clearly, dear United States of America, it is Nigerian laws for Nigerian interest and in this matter, it is Nigeria first, Nigeria always”, he also said.