The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Sunday washed its hands off the alleged recent kidnap and murder of five Hausa Fulanis in Abia State, accusing President Muhammadu Buhari and the Department of State Services (DSS) of attempting to frame up the group. IPOB was reacted to an allegation made on Saturday by DSS in a statement issued in Abuja.

IPOB said in its reaction signed y its Spokespersons Barrister Emma Nmezu and Dr. Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya:

“Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari and his Gestapo Organization called Department of State Services (DSS), henceforth referred to as “Gestapo-DSS” have once again failed in their attempts to portray the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a violent and terrorist group. In their latest but poorly written statement titled “DSS Official Statement on Barnawi and IPOB”, the Gestapo-DSS stated that: “the Service has uncovered the heinous role played by members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), in the abduction/kidnap of five Hausa-Fulani residents, namely Mohammed GAINAKO, Ibrahim MOHAMMED, Idris YAKUBU, and Isa Mohammed RAGO at Isuikwuato LGA in Abia State.” They further noted that: “The abducted men were later discovered at the Umuanyi forest, Abia State, where they were suspected to have been killed by their abductors and buried in shallow graves, amidst fifty (50) other shallow graves of unidentified persons. Arrest and investigation conducted so far, revealed that elements within the IPOB, carried out this dastardly action.”

“To drive home their evil intentions, the murderous Gestapo-DSS asserted that: “It is pertinent therefore to alert the general public that IPOB is gradually showing its true divisive colour and objectives, while steadily embarking on gruesome actions in a bid to ignite ethnic terrorism and mistrust amongst non-indigenes in the South-East region and other parts of the country. Following this act, tension is currently rife among communal stakeholders in the State with possibilities of spillover to other parts of country.”

“Sadly, Buhari and his Gestapo-DSS have come too late to the party because the world is already aware of their plans as earlier revealed through IPOB‘s statement dated September 9, 2015 and titled: “PERSISTENT TERRORIST ATTACKS ON BIAFRANS BY THE NIGERIAN STATE.”

“The aforementioned IPOB‘s statement is posted at the end of this Press Release to remind Buhari and his Gestapo-DSS that IPOB knew ahead of time, what they have up their sleeves. But apart from IPOB’s proactive warning, it is important to analyze this red-herring being drawn by Buhari and his Gestapo-DSS.

“First, on the website of the Gestapo-DSS, they stated thus: “We are obligated by law to investigate the following;

*Threat of espionage

*Threat of espionage

*Threat of sabotage

*Economic crimes of national security dimension

*Terrorist activities

*Separatist agitations and inter-group conflicts.

“But all the claims above are at variance with Section-2(3) of CAP74 LFN 2004 which is the law that established and empowers the Gestapo-DSS. Above all, it is not the duty of the Gestapo-DSS to investigate and make conclusive statements on civilian abduction and murder cases but rather, it is the duty of the Homicide Department of the Nigeria Police Force under the Force/State Criminal Investigation Department (FCID or SCID) and the office of the Director of Coroner’s Inquest of the State in question. Therefore, structurally and mandate-wise on this occasion, the Gestapo-DSS is a fraud and their claims/activities are equally fraudulent.

“Now, we come to their statement; How did the Gestapo-DSS come to the conclusion that it was IPOB members that perpetrated the said crime? Why was it so easy to identify the five Hausa-Fulani victims by names while they were unable to identify the name of at least one person out of the other fifty victims? Are they saying that only Hausa-Fulani people can be easily identified by names? Who conducted the “arrest and investigation” and when was it done? By the way, where are the pictorial and video evidences of the claims by the Gestapo-DSS in comparison to the pictures and video footages provided by IPOB when Buhari killed dozens of Biafrans on February 9, 2016 and for which Buhari cowardly refused to watch the video footage during an interview with Al Jazeera’s Martine Dennis?

“It is clear to everyone that Buhari and his Gestapo-DSS are bereft of any strategy to quell the rising profile of IPOB and the growing resoluteness of Biafrans to restore their God-ordained nation of Biafra despite extra-judicial killings, intimidations, blackmail, monetary inducements to Ohaneze Ndigbo and allied groups, and sundry evil acts perpetrated by state agents. On the other hand, the Gestapo-DSS have realised that they are on the losing side of the legal proceedings that they initiated against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB. They have rather resorted to concocting stories of abduction and killing and have subtly introduced the word “Terrorism” so that they will hopefully make it stick on IPOB and then get Buhari to proclaim IPOB a violent and terrorist organisation.

“One of the reasons behind this ill-fated statement by the Gestapo-DSS is to give them the opportunity to go to court and cite Section-62(2) of CAP38 LFN 2004, which is the missing piece in the second charge against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. But they have failed woefully. Another reason is to give justifications to any upcoming genocidal killing of Biafrans in the Northern (Arewa nation) part of Nigeria, having laid the grounds for reprisal killing of those from the Igbo-speaking areas of Biafraland residing in Arewa portion of Nigeria. Therefore, IPOB is once again alerting the world of the evil plans of Buhari and his Gestapo-DSS in which they want to tag Biafrans as violent and terrorists.

“We urge the public to disregard this hogwash statement from the Gestapo-DSS because it lacks credibility, it is not from the constitutionally/legally authorised source, and it is intended to achieve the twin objectives of classifying IPOB as a terrorist organisation and satisfying Section-62(2) CAP38 LFN 2004.”

•Photo shows detained IPOB Leader Nnamdi Kanu.