Lai Mohammed said Ipob was formed to attack Buhari and is funded by foreign countries

INFORMTION minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed has revealed that the federal government got the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) banned because it was an organisation formed to bring down the Buhari administration that was being sponsored by foreign governments.

Yesterday, the federal government secured a court order enabling it to proscribe Ipob, which has been campaigning for the creation of an independent state of Biafra. Following the filling of an order by the attorney general of the federation, the government secured a federal high court ruling granting it an order declaring Ipob's activities as acts of terrorism and illegality.

In a move that has generated a lot of controversy and public discourse, Nigeria's defence had sought to unilaterally declare Ipob a terrorist organisation last week. However, this move was criticised by civil society groups as unconstitutional as due process was not followed, prompting the government to file a legal suit in an Abuja court.

Praising the ruling, Alhaji Mohammed said that were it not for the timely intervention of some leaders from the north, especially governors from the zone and their counterpart from the southeast, the country would have been engulfed in serious crisis. He commended the southeast governors for being proactive by making it clear to Ipob that it has no support for its violent campaign.

Alhaji Mohammed added: “By its action, the governors have cut off the oxygen that Ipob needs to survive. If the elected governors of all the states in the southeast have banned the activities of Ipob, who then is the organisation fighting for?

“Ipob is a contraption against the Buhari administration and is being sponsored by those I call the coalition of the politically disgruntled and the treasury looters. I stand by that statement despite the noise emanating from the usual suspects."

He pointed out that even  a dictionary definition of genocide, which Ipob is claiming does not support their allegation. According to Alhaji Mohammed, Ipob has also engaged in using highly-emotive videos of killings, which it harvested from other lands and doctored to hoodwink the international community.

“I think anybody who has watched Nnamdi Kanu’s videos anywhere he goes to will see that he openly solicits for arms and for funds. I have a lot of quotations from him as to the violence intentions of Ipob and in one of his videos he said if he is arrested his boys should burn down the country.

"This same Kanu went on television a few days ago saying he was sleeping at about 4.30pm in his house in Umuahia and then some soldiers were making noises, disturbing his sleep and his boys stopped them. I ask him which country in the world would tolerate this?" Alhaji Mohammed added.