Nigeria: Ipob Slams Blair Visit to El-Rufai, Says UK Instigating Ethno-Religious Violence

Awka — The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has criticized recent visit by former British prime minister Tony Blair to Kaduna state governor Nasir el-Rufai, insisting the move was targeted at instigating violence against Christians and Biafrans in Northern Nigeria.

IPOB's media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, alleged that the same British godfatherism towards the core North was also responsible for the military and diplomatic support that enabled Nigeria to win the genocidal war against Biafra between 1967 and 1970.

"Britain, a supposed Christian country, for reasons best known to them, has persistently worked against the interest of Biafra and majority of Christians in Nigeria," the group said in a statement on Monday.

"What Tony Blair is doing today is a well trodden path for the British government.

"They have come to officially give their blessings to the impending massacre of Biafrans and other Christian minorities in the North. Simply put, Tony Blair has come to instigate another civil war in Nigeria the same way he started the one going on in Iraq today.

"Arewa Consultative Forum along with Northern Elders Forum must know that 1967 is not 2017 because Britain will not defend them when the chips are down."

IPOB said the raw hatred and persecution of Biafrans by the British through the North is simply because of the people's enterprise and strong belief in the Judeo-Christian faith.

‎It said it is happy that in Nigeria today, leaders from Middle Belt especially are beginning to realize the existential threat from Hausa Fulani Islamic fundamentalism to the survival of Christianity and Christians in Nigeria.

According to the group, the struggle for Biafra independence which it is proudly agitating for is often misunderstood by the very few vocal social commentators and Nigerian leaders saying that Biafra freedom is not just a living agitation but a fight for the survival of oppressed people in Nigeria against the entrenched threats of radical Islamic fundamentalism and their political collaborators in Nigeria and Britain.

Source: AllAfrica