The outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has denied involvement in the recent murder of an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Iyiorji, in Ebonyi State, Leadership reports.
The Muslim cleric, who hails from the State and converted to the Islamic faith, was recently murdered by unidentified gunmen.
The cleric was rumoured to have been killed by gunmen suspected to be IPOB members but the militant group said that killing of Muslims was not part of its mandate.
In a statement by the spokesperson of the group, Mr Emma Powerful, on Friday, he said killing a Muslim will add nothing to its quest for the Biafra Republic.
“IPOB does not engage in such barbaric killings and cannot be part of such heinous crime against humanity. IPOB does not kill flies 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? Is he a threat to Biafra movement? How many of our known enemies have we killed?,” he queried.
The group stated that Nigerian security agencies were fond of stage-managing confessions from criminals with the hope of indicting IPOB members.
The group noted that criminals tagged as unknown gunmen were not part of IPOB, stating that their activities are 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.
“IPOB and ESN are not hiding its activities and cannot be called unknown gunmen because we are not faceless nor cowards. We are fearless before our enemies,” Powerful added.
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