Some lawyers from the African continent stormed the United States Embassy on Friday in protest of the country’s refusal to recognize the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, as a terror squad.
The development is coming barely 24 hours after some protesters shutdown the US Embassy over same complains.
Recall that the United States Government had said it does not categorize the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist organisation under US law.
A letter signed by Barrister John Oboh, the country’s representative of the League of African Democratic Lawyers and addressed to the Ambassador of the United States of America to Nigeria, the protesting lawyers faulted the US for taking sides with the agitators.
Oboh said a US endorsement of IPOB would spark a wave of separatist agitations across the continent, saying that it was pertinent that the events in Nigeria were assessed on the strength of their continental impact and global ramifications.
According to the group, “Kabylie in Algeria; Lunda-Tchokwe and Cabinda in Angola; Bakassi and Ambazonia in Cameroon; Logone in Central African Republic; Anjouan in Comoros; State of South Congo in Republic of the Congo; Bas-Congo, Katanga and United Republic of Kivu in Democratic Republic of Congo, Bioko Island in Equitorial Guinea; Islamic State of Afaria, Gambela, Ogaden, Oromia and Sidama in Ethiopia; Mombassa Republic and Western Republic of Somalia in Kenya; Cyrenaica and Touboulandin Libya; Azawad in Mali; Rif and Western Sahara in Morocco; Free State of Caprivi in Namibia, Agadez and Tenere Republic in Niger; Batwaland in Rwanda; Somaliland in Somalai; Western Cape and Volkstaat in South Africa; Nuerland in recently breakaway South Sudan; Darfur in Sudan; Zanzibar in Tanzania; Kingdom of Buganda and Yiira Republic in Uganda; Barotseland in Zambia; and Matabeleland in Zimbabwe are a few of the separatist, autonomic and secessionist groups that will grow violent like IPoB in the hope that they will get similar endorsement from the United States.”
The letter further added that the concern is that not many of these countries have the resources or the framework to contain such agitation with the efficiency with which Nigeria did without creating grave humanitarian situations that require global intervention.
The letter added, “Considering that the recognition of IPoB will simultaneously reignite all these separatist movements while encouraging even the politically oriented ones among them to turn violent, the various international organizations are not equipped to deal with continent-wide pockets of violent insurrections that will result. The remaining stable countries of the world must then be prepared to host the portion of Africa’s 1.2 billion people that will pour over their borders.”
Speaking on the activities of IPOB, the group said, there is nothing indigenous about IPoB or the defunct Biafra they are striving to revive.
“Our research clearly show that on the contrary, persons from the modern day are of what was the defunct Biafra are actually displacing Nigeria’s other ethnic nationalities from their ancestral land ,erode their culture and impose themselves on the commercial interests of their host communities.
“Even where IPoB successfully claims the status of “Indigenous Peoples”, we urge the United States not to lose sight of Article 46 (1) of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which clearly states that “Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, people, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act contrary to the Charter of the United Nations or construed as authorizing or encouraging any action which would dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent States.”
The group further alleged that its consultations has revealed that IPoB’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu included the term “Indigenous People” in his group’s name solely to mislead people of his ethnic stock into believing that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples refers to them and absolves them of any crime committed in pursuit of reviving the defunct Biafra.
“The United States’ endorsement of IPoB flies in the face of the global efforts to rid the world of terrorism. The dangers posed to the world by this magnified by the many persons that have identified as IPoB members all over the world. Once they are done gaining ground in Nigeria, all they need to do is to activate their countless sleeper cells across the world.”
“In the midst of the bedlam of IPoB’s propaganda about not being a terror group, the everyday residents have attested to how the Nigerian military have liberated them from living under terrorist occupation.”
“Upon being profiled as attaining all the characteristics of a terror group, the Nigerian military properly advised that IPoB has become a terror organization. Nigeria’s Attorney General activated the necessary steps and a Federal High Court ordered that the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, is a terror group and that its activities have been outlawed in Nigeria. The entire process was found to be in line with Nigerian laws.”
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