Some lawyers in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states have slammed governors of the South-east region for allegedly betraying Igbo people by proscribing the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) which last week had a face-off with the Nigerian military.
Describing the governors’ action as “high degree of betrayal,” the lawyers said no leader in other geo-political zones would do what the governors did.
Speaking, Uyo-based legal practitioner, Barrister David Augustine, said “no one abandons his children, no matter how terrible, to be consumed,” adding that history would not judge those governors kindly.
He said: “Northern Nigerian leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari, strenuously opposed the classification of Boko Haram as a terrorist group. Niger Delta leaders never abandoned Niger Delta fighters that engaged the Nigerian armed forces for years. The Niger Delta war commanders and generals were granted amnesty and billions spent, and still being spent on monthly stipends and local and overseas training and rehabilitation.
“On the ongoing Boko Haram fight, Nigeria has already set up a North-east commission and billions of dollars funnelled there to rebuild. Yet North-east Governors did not rise to proscribe Boko Haram despite their deadly activities.”
Continuing, he said: “Operation Python dance part one took place last year. Not a Dane gun was recovered from IPOB members. Since the second advent of the dancing pythons, not a single Awka-made pistol has been recovered, yet the organisation has been labelled terrorist organisation so as to give room for more humiliation of the people. I will not be surprised if tomorrow, in a bid to justify their deeds, we begin to see a heap of ammunition and weapons from army armouries and labelled as IPOB’s.
“The Nnamdi Kanu phenomenon is a telling indictment on Igbo leadership and that has again manifested in the recent action of South-east governors, who had to be cajoled and cowed into taking an obviously illegal action of proscribing IPOB, which is clearly the job of the court.”
Another lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, corroborated, saying: “There is an ongoing judicial process against the self-acclaimed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.”
