The Indigenous People of Biafra has denied any affiliation with a group, Biafra Government in Exile, describing the group and its Liberation Army as a tool to “distract and deter” the IPOB movement.
IPOB Spokesman, Emma Powerful, in a statement at the weekend, further alleged that the BGE and its Liberation Army are double agents sponsored by the Federal Government to ridicule IPOB, adding that IPOB has consistently dissociated itself from the “autopilot” groups.
He said, “These agent provocateurs keep associating their criminal activities and actions to IPOB, Eastern Security Network and Nnamdi Kanu, because they were sent to distract and deter our movement. But we have defeated them and will always defeat them, as well as their sponsors.”
He also added that the IPOB and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, at no time declared “armed struggle or formed a Biafra army.”
He said: “We are alerting the international community, the Nigerian media and the general public to note that IPOB and Kanu are not part of these antics and games coming from the Federal Government with the so-called Biafra Government in Exile and their Liberation Army.
“At no time in this struggle has Kanu or IPOB’s leadership declared armed struggle or formed a Biafra army. What IPOB formed and inaugurated was armed vigilantes called ESN.”
According to Powerful, the ESN consists of IPOB members who have volunteered to protect forests and farmlands from murderous Fulani herdsmen, who have been “killing, maiming, raping our people and abducting farmers in their farms all over the South-East.”
He said, “IPOB is a peaceful and legally registered organisation in many countries of the world seeking independence from the Nigerian state.
“On the other hand, the so-called Biafra Government in Exile is a factional member of autopilot. None of them is an IPOB member.”
