Tales The Country Told Me By Reuben Abati
“You think Nigeria is at peace? If you call this peace time, then what exactly does war look like? For me, the country is at war already. Nigeria is at a tipping point. I visited my Aunty the other day and I was telling her how politicians are already preparing for 2023, her response shocked me, because she is ordinarily an optimist.”
by Reuben Abati
May 11, 2021
“Bros, how country?”
“I agree with you absolutely. It has never been this bad in peace times”
“You think Nigeria is at peace? If you call this peace time, then what exactly does war look like? For me, the country is at war already. Nigeria is at a tipping point. I visited my Aunty the other day and I was telling her how politicians are already preparing for 2023, her response shocked me, because she is ordinarily an optimist.”
Punch Newspapers
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Published 10 May 2021
A diaspora Igbo group, the Igbo World Assembly, has condemned the continued labelling of the Indigenous People of Biafra as a terrorist group by the Federal Government.
It also urged Igbo town unions, vigilantes, including Ebube Agu and Eastern Security Network, to work together for the security of the Igbo communities,
The group in a statement on Sunday observed that while the herdsmen, who had been killing innocent people had been pampered by government, IPOB members had been hounded like criminals.
IWA in the statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Dr Nwachukwu Anakwenze; Vice Chairman, Christian Onuorah, and Secretary General, Oliver Nwankor, noted that government had spared herdsmen that were the real killers, murderers, kidnappers and rapists in the society.
Hotoro was previously an epicentre for insurgents’ activities in the state, before the terrorists were flushed out by concerted efforts of security forces and residents.
Members of Boko Haram sleeper cells in the area typically attacked security men and churchgoers in drive-by attacks between 2011 and 2013, when they were largely decimated.
The weekend raid, according to a resident of the area, Malam Muhammed Amadi was conducted without drawing much attention.
He explained that the army arrived at the suspect’s residence around 9:15 pm where they surrounded the residence and whisked away some members of the household.
He added that those arrested didn’t resist the arrest and as such not a single gun was fired during the raid.
The Eastern Security Network (ESN), the militant wing of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), is suspected to be behind the spate of attacks on military and police formations in the southeast.
Buhari called on all local leaders to talk to their youths and warn them against being used to incite and foment violence.
The president asked: “If we attack institutions guarding us, who will protect us in future emergencies?”
The latest of such attacks happened on Sunday. Hoodlums suspected to be affiliated with the proscribed IPOB razed Ubani Police station, along Umuahia-Uzuakoli-Akara road, in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State.
Terrorism tag on IPOB: Controversies over rising insecurity in South-East
Published
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its Eastern Security Network (ESN) are understandably the most talked about groups in the country today, owing to controversies surrounding its true status as a peaceful unarmed group and the terrorist organisation the Nigerian Government dubbed it when it applied to a Federal High Court in Abuja for it to be proscribed.
A once little known IPOB, led by the controversial Nnamdi Kanu, who is based in the United Kingdom, became the sing song on the month of Nigerians, in the run up to the 2015 general elections, with scathing commentaries by its leader, reeling out reasons the then President Muhammadu Buhari must not be elected, and even after when Kanu, in his several outbursts, nicknamed Nigeria a Zoo!