The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB has attacked and criticized President Donald Trump of the United States of America for inviting President Buhari to the White House in Washington DC.
In a statement signed by its spokesèerson distributed to journalists in Awka, the Anambra State capital, the pro-Biafra group berated Trump for what it described as tacitly supporting the massacre of pro-Biafra supporters in spite of the fact that they rallied to celebrate his victory during his inauguration where scores of them were allegedly manhandled by security agents.
The statement read in part: “What the Trump administration appears to be doing is inadvertently giving the green light to the brutal anti-democratic regimes in Africa of which Buhari’s APC is one, to murder and detain at will, innocent people and dissenting voices. If not, there is nothing democratic about ‘Buhari’ to justify his invitation to the White House for any discussion.
“Whoever it is at the United States Embassy in Abuja, responsible for compiling and transmitting reports of the regime’s atrocities back to the State Department in Washington, failed woefully in his or her duty, because the Buhari regime is the worst government in the history of Nigeria.”
IPOB statement read further: “We would like to seize this opportunity of the meeting between President Trump and ‘Buhari’ to draw the attention of the American people to the plight of Biafrans in detention across Nigeria, especially the four in a maximum security prison simply because they came out to celebrate with millions of other people around the world the day President Donald Trump was sworn into office.
“It is also important that we remind the US presidency and the good people of United States of America, since it appears the US embassy in Nigeria failed to do so, of the enormity of the brutality and cold blooded massacre of innocent citizens merely exercising their right to freedom of assembly on that fateful day of January 20, 2017.
“There is something morally repugnant about ‘Buhari’ visiting Washington to discuss democracy when his administration is not democratic. The failure of US government to hold this regime to account is what may have emboldened and encouraged them to embark on the wholesale ethnic cleansing of parts of Benue State.”
“IPOB would like to know if President Trump, by virtue of this invitation to Buhari, is justifying the cold blooded massacre and illegal detention of tens of innocent Biafrans that rallied in Igweocha, Port Harcourt, on that fateful day of January 20, 2017 during his inauguration.
“What the Trump administration appear to be doing is inadvertently giving the green light to brutal anti-democratic regimes in Africa of which the ‘Buhari’ APC is one, to murder and detain at will, if not there is nothing democratic about ‘Buhari’ to justify his invitation to the White House for any discussion on governance and democracy.
“Whoever it is at the United States embassy in Abuja, responsible for compiling and transmitting reports of regime atrocities back to the State Department in Washington, failed woefully in his or her duty, because this current ‘Buhari’ regime is the worst government in the history of Nigeria.”
According to IPOB, “the present APC government in Nigeria led by President Buhari has nothing qualifying it to be given the honour of visiting the office of the leader of the free world, both in terms of brutality, wickedness and total disregard for democratic norms and rule of law.”
“Welcoming Buhari to the White House means welcoming tyranny into the bowel of democracy. It sends out the message that United States of America is standing shoulder to shoulder with a mass murderer and tyrannical government, contrary to its stated objectives.
“What those who are behind this visit of President Buhari to the White House may have succeeded in doing is give the official President Trump administration endorsement to Nigerian President Buhari, to go on killing and locking people up at will, including those that came out on the streets to celebrate President Trump’s victory.”
IPOB said “the visit by President Buhari to White House makes a mockery of the ideals, values of the founding principles of the United States of America”, adding that “if the man responsible for the illegal detention and brutal murder of those celebrating the election of a US president is being welcomed to White House as if nothing happened, one wonders if President Trump is not aware of the 20th of January 2017 massacre at Igweocha, Port Harcourt, or the US mission to Nigeria, especially the US ambassador, failed to inform the White House and President Trump about the incident.”
IPOB named Mr. Ikenna Igwe Mazi, Mr. Uchenna Innocent, Mr. Bright Sunday Okoro and Mr. Chidinma Godwin Nwafor, as some of the people arrested and until date still languishing in prison for no other reason than the fact they were celebrating Trump victory.
“They were detained on a trumped up charge of treasonable felony for celebrating the inauguration of a US president that is today wining and dinning with the same man that threw them in jail. There is something morally repugnant about this. The very least President Trump can do is to demand that ‘Buhari’ immediately release all IPOB activists and other political detainees across Nigeria.”
