IPOB denies involvement in assassination of Islamic cleric

The outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has denied any involvement in the recent murder of an Islamic cleric in Ebonyi State, Sheikh Ibrahim Iyiorji.

The Muslim cleric, who was born in the state and converted to Islam, was recently assassinated by unidentified gunmen.

The cleric was rumoured to have been murdered by gunmen suspected of being IPOB members, but the militant group claimed that killing Muslims was not part of its mandate.

According to Mr Emma Powerful, the group’s spokesperson, killing a Muslim will add nothing to the group’s 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.

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“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.
According to the group, Nigerian security agencies were fond of staging confessions from criminals in order to indict IPOB members.
The group stated that criminals labelled as “unknown gunmen” were not members of IPOB, claiming that their activities were public and could not be described as “unknown.”

“Security agents are constantly staging unscrupulous elements and petty thieves to lie against IPOB members and ESN operatives.”

Despite all provocations in the name of unknown gunmen since we began pursuing Biafra freedom, IPOB and ESN have never killed an Army officer, a police officer, or a DSS agent.

“IPOB and ESN are not concealing their activities and cannot be labelled as unknown gunmen because we are not faceless or cowards.” “We are fearless in the face of our adversaries,” Powerful added.