Killing of 36 soldiers in Niger: IPOB condemns skeletal media coverage

The leadership of the Indigenous People Of Biafra—IPOB, has condemned the media silence that greeted the brutal killing of soldiers by terrorists operating under the guise of bandits in Niger State.

NewsBand on Monday reports that the Nigerian Air Force aircraft was shot down by a terrorist group which however, resulted to the unfortunate death of 36 soldiers.

A statement by the spokesman of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet said the aircraft left Zungeru Primary School en route to Kaduna State but was later discovered to have crashed in a village in Shiroro local government area of Niger State.

But IPOB in a statement by its spokesman, Emma Powerful has bemoaned the skeletal media coverage given to the heinous attack.

While accusing security agencies of double standard, Powerful wondered how the Department of State Service—DSS, Nigeria military, Air Force and Police are unable to fish out the hideouts of these terrorists but will be fast to claim they are discovering and bombing what he described as non-existent IPOB-ESN camps in the rain forests of Southeast.

He however, noted that if it where to be in Southeast that the Nigeria Air Force jet was shot down during an operation against ESN, all media outlets and commentators would have been condemning every Igbo man alive by now.

The statement reads, “We the global movement and family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by the great and indefatigable leader Mazi Nnamdi KANU note with dismay the conspiratorial silence, lack of public condemnation and vociferous outcry of media pundits and Nigerians in general, over recent persistent deadly terrorist attacks against innocent civilians in the Northern part of Nigeria.

“The skeletal media coverage of these heinous attacks are usually devoid of the ethnojingoist venom that usually accompany reportage of any act of insecurity in the South East.

“Recently, terrorists from Northern Nigeria have laid seige to Niger, Zamfara, Plateau and swathes of Northern Nigeria, killing and maiming soldiers, downing Air Force attack helicopter and abducting countless number of terrified civilians.

“Curiously and rather unfortunate, there has remained a partial to total media blackout of these brutal terrorist attacks by Northern elements on their communities because of the reluctance of those in power not to cast those responsible in bad light.

“One wonders how the DSS, Nigeria military, Air Force and Police are not able to discover the hideouts of these Northern terrorists and bandits but claim they are discovering and bombing non-existent IPOB-ESN camps in the rain forests of Biafraland? The local political contractors controlling the apparatus of governance in Nigeria and their neo-colonialist allies, still intent on the subjugation and oppression of Easterners by continuing a proxy Nigeria- Biafra War that ended in 1970, should stop this barefaced hypocrisy and hatred against the Igbo race and give Biafrans the referendum we are asking for because self-determination is an inalienable RIGHT guaranteed by the laws of Nigeria. Our quest for referendum is a task that must be accomplished.

“Security agencies in Nigeria living large on appropriated billions of Dollars in the name of fighting insecurity are scam artists. They have instituted another subsidy regime to fund their incompetence. INSECURITY SUBSIDY is but another fraudulent regime modelled on criminal scheme developed by their political counterparts called petrol subsidy. They should stop chasing shadows in the East claiming they are looking for IPOB and ESN operatives.

“Had Nigeria Air Force jet come down in the South East during an alleged operation against ESN, all news outlets and pundits would have condemned every Igbo man alive by now.

“Nigeria Government and its Security Agencies are experts in dishing out fake information against the peaceful IPOB as a cover to unleash shameless soldiers to maim,  intimidate, and molest unarmed, civilians in the East. As the DSS have hired some criminals at home and abroad to destabilize the South East in their quest to divide and destroy IPOB from within. They have effectively compromised some media outlets to misinform the public against the peaceful Global movement-IPOB.”

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