By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Sunday asked its members to gather in Washington, DC, United States, for a protest against the Nigerian government's moves to counter allegations of a Christian genocide in the country.

IPOB, in a statement issued by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, on behalf of the group's detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu, said the protest is to support United States President Donald Trump's plans to put an end to ethno-religious genocide in Nigeria.

The statement said the decision to embark on the protest followed reports that a high-level Nigerian government delegation is going to the US to meet President Donald Trump and other American officials over the alleged Christian genocide.

The statement titled 'All Judeo-Christians and Biafrans in the US, report to Washington DC', said, "A high-level Nigerian delegation is reportedly heading to the United States to polish Nigeria?s battered international image and deceive world leaders into believing that peace, justice, and religious freedom exist in that country. They want to cover the blood.

"We say no! We will not allow the same government presiding over ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, church burnings, abductions, and mass burials of Indigenous Peoples to rewrite the narrative while the victims are still bleeding.

"This is the hour to raise our voices with thunder, in the capital of the free world. We must support President Trump to end ethno-religious genocide in Nigeria!

?For over a decade, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu sounded the alarm about the jihadist expansion, land-grabbing agenda, and systematic extermination targeting Judeo-Christian populations.

?They abducted him, tortured him, and locked him away because he refused to be silent while his people were marked for extinction. We will honor his sacrifice by taking the truth to Washington, D.C. ? loudly."

The statement stressed that the protest must be held immediately because indigenous nations across Nigeria are being overrun one after another.

"Hausa ancestral identity erased. Nupe communities swallowed. Middle Belt villages wiped out. Christian lands in Southern Kaduna soaked in blood. Yoruba communities in Kwara under siege. Biafraland under constant military occupation.

"If we don?t rise, we will be the next headline, the next mass grave, the next ?never again? story. There is no neutral ground in the face of genocide.

Silence is surrender. Inaction is consent," the statement added.

Stressing that the protest must be peaceful, IPOB noted that the mobilization for protest is not a violent call, nor a call for confrontation. It described the protest as a call for a mass, peaceful and unstoppable display of conscience.

The statement explained that the call for protest is for every Biafran in the US, Judeo-Christians, Yoruba Nation, Middle Belt, Idoma, Tiv, Ijaw, Ibibio, and all Indigenous Peoples, human rights defenders, civil liberty groups, and all people with a conscience.

"No tribe stands alone anymore ? unity is our shield. Our message to America and the world: No diplomatic lies can cover mass graves. No lobbying can erase the tears of widows and orphans. No propaganda can bury the truth forever. The world must hear the cry of the persecuted. America must stand with the oppressed ? not the oppressor, the streets of Washington must feel our footsteps," the statement added.

According to the statement, the date, time and venue of the protest will be announced later.

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