The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Monday spoken
out against plans by the Nigerian Army to go ahead with Operation Python Dance III
despite calls for the operation to be shelved.
A statement issued by the group which was signed by
its spokesperson, Emma Powerful, said the Nigerian army has already started
mobilising military hardware to the South-east region.
The group said it was pained that despite the huge
outcry and condemnation of any plan to hold military operation after the event
generated deaths last year, the army was paying deaf ears to the cries.
It added that what was particularly worrisome was
that the military operation was coming at a time when the group had discovered
mass graves in Abia State, where bodies of its members killed during the
operation Python Dance II were buried by soldiers.
Part of the report read: "Here we are today
with the Nigeria military poised to invade the Southeast again in order to
slaughter the weak and innocent in their annual Fulani genocidal ritual in the
name of yet another Operation Python Dance III.
"Armoured tanks and machine guns of the
caliphate have rolled into the peaceful South-east region to commence another
round of state sanctioned slaughter and mayhem."
IPOB blamed Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the South-east
governors for keeping quiet while another round of what it called 'state
sanctioned killings' is about to commence.
It added that it is for these reasons that its
resolve would not be dampened as it plans to hold a general strike on September
14 to protest and also honour its members who were killed during operation
Python dance II.
"This is coming at a time when more bodies of
innocent victims of Operation Python Dance II
killed last year by the Nigerian army are being discovered in mass grave
in Abia State; at a time when we are still burying those Operation Python Dance
II killed and dumped in mass graves across Biafraland in September 2017.
"No sane society or a people worth their salt
will tolerate such brazen conquest and humiliation. What was once considered a
reprehensible abomination in Igboland is now a norm. Mass death and destruction
of Southeast and Southsouth by the Nigerian army has become commonplace, and
our senses have become numb to these atrocities.
"South-east governors met on September 2,
2018, for what we understand to be a crucial meeting. They rose from that
gathering without uttering a word or issuing a statement of condemnation of
Operation Python Dance III because they are part of it.
"They did nothing about the mass murder of
their people in September 2017 in Afaraukwu, they never uttered a word when our
grandmothers were thoroughly humiliated, and they don't know what leadership
means.
"The general strike called for on September 14,
2018, is to express our anger and at the same time, respect the memory of those
killed, tortured and disappeared by the General Yusuf Buratai-led Nigeria army
through Operation Python Dance II which occurred on September 14, 2017, in
Isiama Afaraukwu Umuahia Abia State.
"Our anger is also directed at Igbo politicians
and Ohaneze Ndigbo in particular that conspired with the Fulani Islamic army of
Nigeria to invade the home of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, with the sole
intention of killing him and his parents," the group said.
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