President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the nation’s western allies to designate the Indigenous People of Biafra as a terrorist organization.
The President made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg, a U.S based publication.
The President said this while responding to a question about his administration’s record in fighting insecurity and corruption.
According to President Buhari, the country is safer than he met it in 2015, and proscribing IPOB, a group seeking secession of parts of Southern Nigeria will improve the situation.
“We leave Nigeria in a far better place than we found it,” the President said. “Corruption is less hidden for Nigerians feel empowered to report it without fear, while money is returned; terrorists no longer hold any territory in Nigeria, and their leaders are deceased, and vast infrastructure development sets the country on course for sustainable and equitable growth.
“In 2015, Boko Haram held territory the size of Belgium within the borders of Nigeria. Today they are close to extinction as a military force. The leader of ISWAP was eliminated by a Nigerian Airforce airstrike in March. The jets acquired from the US and intelligence shared by British were not provided to previous administrations and stand as a testament to renewed trust re-built between Nigeria and our traditional western allies under my government.
“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 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.
“My administration is the only in Nigeria’s history to implement a solution to decades-long herder-farmer conflicts, exacerbated by desertification and demographic growth.
The National Livestock Transformation Plan, putting ranching at its core, is the only way to deplete the competition for resources at the core of the clashes. Governors from some individual states have sought to play politics where ranches have been established, but where they have been disputes have dramatically reduced.”
The President said the vandalism and oil theft allegedly carried out by IPOB were responsible for the shortfall of the daily oil production quota in Nigeria.
While noting that the country had stepped up its efforts in combating oil theft and vandalism among others, he said, “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.
Editor Paul Akhagbemhe
