Human rights lawyer and lead counsel for the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has warned criminal elements in the South-East against turning the region’s liberation struggle into a criminal enterprise.
Ejiofor gave the warning on Saturday in a statement titled: “Weekend Musings: The South-East Must Never Bleed Again: The Peril of False Labels, Criminal Impunity, and the Collective Duty to Defend Peace – When Every Criminal Is Conveniently Called IPOB, Who Then Is Hunting the Real Killers?”
He pointed out that over the years, he has remained one of the very few voices from the South-East who consistently warned against those who had transformed the legitimate aspirations for self-determination into a thriving industry of violence, extortion, fear, and death.
He said that, at enormous personal risk, he devoted countless public interventions to exposing the dangerous contradictions, falsehoods and destructive tendencies of individuals whose stock-in-trade had become the merchandising of blood under the seductive banner of liberation.
“For daring to challenge this dangerous deception, I was vilified. I was declared persona non grata in certain quarters. I received threats. Yet, I deliberately continued travelling throughout Alaigbo because no freeborn son should be intimidated into abandoning the land of his ancestors by merchants of violence masquerading as liberators,” he said.
Ejiofor noted that Alaigbo today enjoys relative peace, stressing that such peace was neither accidental nor cheaply won.
According to him, the peace came at a tremendous human cost and must never again be surrendered to criminal elements.
“Recent disturbing developments, however, deserve our immediate attention. Videos allegedly showing certain criminal elements issuing threats to make Alaigbo ungovernable once more, together with disturbing incidents reportedly emerging from communities such as Umulolo and Arondizuogu, should concern every conscientious Igbo son and daughter.
“Equally disturbing are what appear to be desperate attempts in some quarters to indiscriminately classify every criminal actor as an IPOB member, irrespective of the available facts,” he stated.
He said the painful reality is that the emotional attachment of many Igbo people to the historical ideal of Biafra has often rendered them vulnerable to manipulation.
According to him, when emotions completely eclipse reason, discernment becomes the first casualty.
Ejiofor said this had made it possible for certain individuals to make astonishing and fantastical declarations without the slightest scrutiny.
“They assured vulnerable followers that the restoration of Biafra had already become inevitable on specifically announced dates. They claimed that warships had mysteriously arrived. They spoke of fighter jets allegedly hovering in readiness. Every prophecy failed. Every promise evaporated. Every prediction collapsed under the weight of reality.
“Financial contributions continued.
“The deception continued.
“Meanwhile, Alaigbo paid the ultimate price.
“While fantasies flourished on social media, mothers buried their children. Fathers abandoned their ancestral homes. Businesses collapsed. Entire communities became deserted after dusk. Fear became the unofficial currency of daily existence, while innocent blood flowed with terrifying regularity.
“Today, painful developments increasingly suggest that those tragic years may not have been orchestrated by isolated actors alone. Emerging realities indicate that certain individuals once held in high esteem may have either actively collaborated with or silently enabled the machinery that plunged our homeland into unprecedented insecurity. History will eventually assign every participant his appropriate place.
