The Indigenous People of Biafra on Tuesday said the mission of the group was being misconstrued by most Nigerians.
The group said it had never thought of using war as a solution to achieving its objective of self-determination.
In a press statement made available to the media in Awka, Anambra State, by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, the group described its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, as a peaceful and civilised personality, who would not be quick to go to war.
The group said its struggle was legitimate and within the confines of international laws.
It maintained that the enemies of Biafra were fuelling hate against the group either as a result of ignorance of the situation or deliberate manipulation of facts.
The group’s statement read in part, “It is fair to assume, going by the utterances of certain corrupt segments of the Nigerian society, that most of what IPOB is saying and stands for is lost in translation because anybody with a basic understanding of rudimentary English and constitutional law will know that self-determination does not mean war and that referendum is not hate speech.
“Again, when badly educated and ill-informed people dabble into a discipline above them, such mistakes are bound to happen.
“We would like to use this opportunity to clarify, once again, that IPOB is asking for self-determination as recognised in both the United Nations’ Charter on the Rights of Indigenous People and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
“Before these northern (elements) threaten us with war that IPOB hasn’t called for, let them spend a bit of their valuable time acquainting themselves with these charters and declarations.”
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