|
Listen to article
|
The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari has also linked some of the increasing spate of oil theft and pipeline vandalism to the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB while blaming them for targeting those belonging to foreign corporations.
The President had also made it clear that the vandalism and oil theft carried out by IPOB is responsible for the shortfall of the daily production quota in Nigeria.
He disclosed this during a question and answer session with Bloomberg, a United States, US-based publication.
The president urged foreign countries to designate IPOB as a terrorist organization, he had also accused the international communities of funding the separatist group and giving them reverence in some of their activities.
President Buhari had also made claims that IPOB was being funded through international financial networks.
Read Also: Gunmen & IPOB Members’ Clash In Anambra Leaves 5 Dead
“Criminality and terrorism in oil-producing regions hamper production, and it would help if our western allies designated IPOB as a terrorist group, given their complicity in damage to pipelines and infrastructure.
“We urge those same international partners to take additional steps costing them nothing, by proscribing another group – IPOB – as a terrorist organization.
“Their leadership enjoys a safe haven in the West, broadcasting hate speech into Nigeria from London, spending millions lobbying members of the US Congress, and freely using international financial networks to arm agitators on the ground. This must stop,” he said.
In another report, five gunmen were gunned down and killed during a shootout with suspected members outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Akwa Community in Ihiala Local Government of Anambra State yesterday.
The gunmen and the IPOB members were said to have engaged in a battle over supremacy and control of the area.
The IPOB members had also reportedly killed five of the gunmen whom they accused of terrorising residents of the council area.
A video circulating on social media, showed the IPOB members in a long convoy heading to an unknown destination with some bodies – said to be the five slain gunmen — in one of their trucks.
