IPOB Denies Involvement In Murder Of Islamic Cleric

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) yesterday denied involvement in the recent murder of an Islamic cleric in Ebonyi State.

The cleric, who hailed from Ebonyi State, Sheikh Ibrahim Iyiorji, was recently murdered in the state by gunmen suspected to be IPOB members but the group said killing of Muslims was not part of its mandate.

A statement by the spokesman of the group, Mr Emma Powerful, said killing a Muslim would add nothing to its quest for the Biafra Republic.

“IPOB does not engage in such barbaric killings and cannot be part of such heinous crimes against humanity. IPOB does not kill flies not to talk of human beings and an Igbo man for that matter, irrespective of his religious belief.

“Important questions to ask are: why will IPOB kill this Igbo Islamic cleric? Was he a threat to the Biafra movement? How many of our known enemies have we killed?”

The group stated that Nigerian security agencies were fond of stage-managing confessions from criminals with the hope of indicting them.

IPOB noted that criminals tagged as unknown gunmen were not part of IPOB, stating that their activities were in the open and cannot be described as unknown.

“Some unscrupulous elements and petty thieves are constantly stage-managed by security agents to lie against IPOB members and ESN operatives.

“IPOB and ESN never killed any army officer, police officer or DSS agent despite all provocations in the name of unknown gunmen since we started pursuing Biafra freedom,” the spokesman added.