Some leaders of thought from the various ethnic groups in Delta State have thrown their support behind the Defence Headquarters in its decision to tag the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) a terrorist organisation.
In separate interviews with The Nation in Warri yesterday, an Urhobo leader and former Delta State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Victor Otomiewo, as well as renowned legal luminary and Chairman of the apex Itsekiri social culture body; the Itsekiri Leaders of Thought (ILoT), Chief Edward Ekpoko, slammed IPOB for its activities.
Otomiewo said the federal government had tolerated what he described as IPOB’s lawlessness for too long, saying that the group had violated the peace of the country and should be made to face the full weight of the law.
He said: “The government has tolerated the insult and the contempt of IPOB for too long, and I’m in full support of the decisive action.
“Those who think because of whatever they think of themselves take the laws into their hands must be visited with the full weight of the law.
“At the time of emergency and lawlessness, the rule of law and democracy are no longer relevant. The show of force is welcomed and justified.”
Toeing the same line, Itsekiri leader and renowned lawyer, Edward Ekpoko, said IPOB had, in recent times, caused so much unease and tension across the country that it would be unwise for government not to take a serious action, noting that many of the people who had been co-opted into the group had joined unwillingly for fear of possible attack by the body’s minders.
He said: “It is a terrorist organisation and it is proper that it should be designated a terrorist organisation, because, one, IPOB activities, if you watch it closely, is terrorising not only every Nigerian but right now the people in Abia and Rivers states, if what we are reading and what is going on in the social media is correct.
“A situation where they mount road blocks and begin to seek the identities a particular set of people in commercial or any vehicle, to identify them and bring them out, if this is true, then what else do you call them if not terrorists?
“Going out with arms, going to a police station where some of their arrested members were kept, invading the station and unlawfully releasing them. So many illegal activities. It is a terrorist organisation.
“If the Nigerian government fails to handle them well, I only pity the country, because what they are doing is already raising tension in the north, because they are targeting northerners. If this thing is not nipped now, only God knows the extent to which it will spread.
“It is a terrorist organisation. Do you know how many people have been killed in the east? In fact, most of those following them are not doing so from their own conviction, but they have to support for them to be alive, if not, they would be killed.
“Government cannot fold its arms and allow lawlessness to prevail. This is a society of law and order. I am in complete agreement with the Defence Headquarters.”
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