'You can’t suppress us' - IPOB to Ebonyi governor

The Indigenous People of Biafra on Tuesday criticised Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi for allegedly suppressing the group.

The state government on Monday banned all activities involving the separatist group in the state, insisting IPOB was a proscribed organisation.

But in a statement by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, the group said the state government had no capacity to suppress them.


The group alleged that Umahi was against them because the ruling All Progressives Congress had promised to make him their vice-presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential poll.

The statement read in part, “Dave Umahi’s desperate attempt to turn our beloved Ebonyi State into another vassal state is dead on arrival.

“IPOB is on the ground and will never allow it. If his ‘Alice in Wonderland’ dream of becoming Bola Tinubu’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election is his motivation for coming out against IPOB at this critical moment in our history, then he is not only misguided but deluded.

“We note that this is not the first time Dave Umahi has sought to impress his masters by making grand declarations against IPOB.

“Sometime in mid-2017 he issued a Fatwa against our leader and boasted that IPOB’s rallies would never hold in Ebonyi State.”

The group added, “How many Fulani governors have come out against herdsmen or Boko Haram? Yet Igbo governors keep on making a complete fool of themselves by attacking IPOB.”