The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Sunday, said Igbos are the reason Nigeria has survived till date. He also said that Igbo are not after Biafra to dominate Niger Delta oil as erroneously believed and peddled by Biafra haters.
In a statement he personally signed Mazi Kanu, said; “Contrary to unfounded misconceptions in some quarters, Ndigbo are not greedy or domineering but very accommodating and forbearing.” “They are easy -going and enterprising people whose successes in life have rather earned them envy and jealousy instead of the admiration and applause of their neighbours.”
“The fact remains that Igbo are loving, accommodating, peaceful and enterprising people. They are the reason Nigeria has survived till date. “The thinking therefore, that we are after Biafra so that the Igbo can dominate other ethnic nationalities in the new Republic and ultimately claim their oil deposits is uncalled for.
“Such unnecessary fear and warped opinion should be discarded as they are unfounded and only a propaganda tool of those who want to perpetually pin us down in the British bondage called Nigeria. “Igbo have enough crude oil and other mineral deposits to sustain her people as a country but the quest for Biafra is for the freedom and overall interest of all the ethnic nationalities involved.” Mazi Kanu, therefore, berated those whom he said are ignorance, describing them as propagandists and mischief makers.
He said they tend to forget that every square inch of Igboland is full of oil, gas and highly -sought- after precious minerals including rare earth. Mazi Kanu’s statement made available to newsmen by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, also said Igboland is the only place on the planet where coal, oil, gas and highly- sought-after minerals occur side by side, but also has the largest oil field in West Africa located in Nsukka, in Enugu State.
Mazi Kanu’s statement read, “There are those who out of ignorance or mischief, or both, constantly and divisively refer to a portion of Biafraland as oil-rich Niger Delta to be excised from the rest of Biafra for the benefit of One Nigeria.”
“Some of these people with such warped mentality especially newscasters, commentators, newspaper columnists or opinion writers, as well as some pipeline guards from the lugubrious region. “They often claim the yearning for Biafra has something to do with Igbos taking over their oil or “Oyel” as they prefer to call it. What a shame! How ignorant people who share such unfounded opinion could be!
“These propagandists and mischief makers tend to forget that every square inch of Igboland is full of oil, gas and highly -sought- after precious minerals including rare earth. “Igboland is the only place on the planet where coal, oil, gas and highly- sought-after minerals occur side by side, but has the largest oil field in West Africa located in Nsukka, in Enugu State.”
The pro Biafra activist challenged the people he described as propagandist to name the state in the South East that hasn’t got oil, saying that Shell is in Egbema; Agip is in Ohaji; Shell is in Ogwuta and Ukwa. He added that Orient oil is in Agulueri/Umueri; Addax Oil is in Awomama and Izombe. Ohaji has the largest in-use gas field in Africa piped to the coast and shipped to world markets.
“What the dreaded Chinese, brought in by Governor Dave Umahi, are doing to our land is stripping it of valuable mineral resources not found anywhere else in Africa apart from Congo. “If oil and gas or mineral deposits are the main reasons we are agitating for Biafra, then it would have been more prudent to abandon everybody else and seek a homogeneous Igbo nation. “However, the fact is that BLOOD is thicker than WATER .
All Biafrans are one people and we are leaving Nigeria at the same time. Our greatest natural resource is our God-given ingenuity and intelligence not something located under the grounds. “The mischief makers bent on sowing seed of discord among brethren should think of something else because their propaganda cannot fly. Not now nor even in the future.”
