Nigeria government says Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, is not set up to fight for right of anyone or group but is being sponsored by certain disgruntled elements to sabotage the Buhari administration, under the guise of fighting for the rights of the people of the South-East.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said this  in a statement signed by his media aide, Segun Adeyemi and sent to CEOAFRICA . He alleged that IPOB was being sponsored by “coalition of the politically-disgruntled and treasury looters”.

He said the intention of the sponsors was to divert attention from the efforts of the President Muhmadu Buhari administration and obliterate its laudable achievements.

“They believe that by sponsoring this group to destabilise the country and trigger chaos, they will realise their ambition of escaping justice and then be free to dip their hands into the nation’s treasury again.

“The signs are very clear; the activities of IPOB became heightened with the advent of this administration, and have been unrelenting since then.

“If this is coincidental, then that coincidence is uncanny, at the least,” Mr. Mohammed said.

Justifying his claims, the minister recalled that IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was the same person who, during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, advocated the unity of Nigeria.

He said that during the period, Mr. Kanu led a protest at the Nigeria House in London against Boko Haram insurgency and in support of Nigeria’s unity.

He, therefore, wondered why Mr. Kanu would suddenly metamorphose into an IPOB monster who, was rather bent on dividing the country and setting the nation ablaze.

“Has anyone wondered why IPOB decided to up the ante, so to say, in its violent campaign immediately it was announced that Nigeria has come out of recession?

“Now, instead of the government being given the chance to consolidate on that monumental achievement, it is being distracted, and the airwaves have been polluted with the activities of IPOB.

“The good news of the end of recession and its fall-outs are being replaced in the headlines with the IPOB show of shame,” he said.

Mr. Mohammed said that the self-imposed IPOB leader is the master of hate speech, incendiary, divisive and inciting speeches.

He noted that the activities of IPOB, “a rag tag mob” and its gullible supporters had in the past days reached crescendo and threatening the unity of the nation.

“They set up parallel military and para-military organisations, mount road blocks and even confront the Nigerian military.

“Their leader openly solicits for weapons and incites hatred and violence,” he said.

Mr. Mohammed said that the group had also formed a Biafra Secret Service, claimed formation of Biafra National Guard and engaged in physical confrontation with troops at a check point.

He said that government could no longer tolerate such excesses and commended the military for declaring the group, terrorist.

“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 organisation to threaten the corporate existence of our country.

”But for the military’s quick and decisive intervention, IPOB could have set the nation on fire. Thanks to the decisiveness of the military, the Governors of the states in the South-east have wisely proscribed IPOB,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed accused IPOB of harvesting gory videos from the distant past and from other lands to deceive the international community that the people of the South-east are victims of state-sponsored ethno-sectarian violence, describing such tactics as ”lies and propaganda”.

”Such videos, which have very high emotive quotient, are circulating on the Social Media. We call on all to subject such videos to the greatest scrutiny so as not to be misled. In particular, we urge the international community not to jump to any conclusion on the basis of such videos,” he said.

The Minister also appealed to the media to show greater restraint and avoid sensationalism in their reporting of the military exercise, Operation Python Dance II, in the South-east.

Mohammed added that the Nigerian media cannot afford to sit on the fence or engage in irresponsible journalism when the issue at stake is the very survival of the nation.

”The divisive and jaundiced opinions of some anarchists have been given a big play by a section of the media. This is wrong. Let me remind all of us of the role of the media, especially the radio, in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that left about 800,000 people dead,” he added.

The Nigerian Defence Headquarters  last week declared IPOB a terror group, giving give reasons for its decision.

The south-east governors also proscribed the group, after a meeting attended by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-political organisation.

On Saturday the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, faulted the Defence Headquarters’ declaration of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist organisation.