By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor, Omezia Ajayi & Dirisu Yakubu

LAGOS—The Federal Government, yesterday, said the escalation of the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, was deliberately conceived by a coalition of politically disgruntled and treasury looters to distract it from its set objectives.

Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, at a press conference in Lagos yesterday, also alerted the country to what the administration claimed was a propaganda scheme by IPOB and its alleged sponsors to whip up sentiments through the circulation of fake video scripts to give a negative impression of the Nigerian Army.

National chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, at another forum, accused treasury looters and those opposed to the policies of the federal administration of being behind a plot to destabilise the country.

Both the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ahmed Makarfi, and party spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, did not respond to Vanguard’s enquiries on the issue, yesterday.

Illegalities committed by IPOB

Giving a narration of some of the illegalities committed by IPOB, Mohammed said:  “Some of the group’s atrocities have been well documented by the military, which has labelled IPOB a terrorist organisation.

‘’They include the formation of a Biafra Secret Service, claimed formation of Biafra National Guard, unauthorised blocking of public access roads; extortion of money from innocent civilians at illegal road blocks, and possession and use of weapons (stones, molotov cocktails, machetes and broken bottles among others) on a military patrol on September 10, 2017.

“IPOB engaged in physical confrontation with troops at a check point on September  11, 2017, during which they attempted to snatch soldiers’ rifles; and carried out an attack on a military check point on 12 September 2017. No nation, not Nigeria, will allow that to happen unchallenged.

‘’The fact that Boko Haram festered because it was not decisively tackled by the immediate past administration meant we should never again give room for any organization to threaten the corporate existence of our country.”

Treasury looters, opposition of sponsoring IPOB—Oyegun

Meanwhile, speaking in a similar vein, national chairman of  APC, Odigie-Oyegun, at another forum, accused treasury looters and those opposed to the policies of the federal administration of being behind a plot to destabilise the country.

Odigie-Oyegun, who made the accusation against the opposition on Saturday night at a dinner to celebrate his 78th birthday, said: “The foundations of our nation are being rocked deliberately.

“We promised change, but quite frankly, change of the immediacy that we promised has inevitably run against the kind of fight back that we are having today. Because of the kind of President we are lucky to have, because we have a man who is thorough.

‘’We have a man as President who insists on fairness, who insists that justice must be given its due place and that everything must take place according to due process, the powers of darkness have taken advantage of this to fight back in such a massive way that they are beginning to threaten the very foundation of our nation.”

He, nevertheless, agreed that there is hunger in the land as he called for understanding.

He said: “Yes, it has caused pain, stress and there is a bit of hunger in the land. People are hungry and there is no question about that. But if you need to eat an omelette, it is inevitable that you have to break the egg.

“So, my message to our people nationwide is to bear with us. The pride that you feel when you walk out and say you are a Nigerian, backed up by 170 million people and hopefully backed up by an economy that will bring us back to growth, to stability and development. The pride that everyone will feel is much greater than the attempt to disintegrate us into tiny mini republics. That will not happen.”

Earlier, chairman of the occasion, Jim Nwobodo, while calling for peace, appealed to all leaders and elders to call the youths to order, saying: “All stakeholders, elders, leaders, religious institutions, educational institutions should please call our youths to order. My generation is looking up to you our young leaders to give us Nigeria of our dream.”