The presidency said on Monday that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group has had nothing to do with President Buhari since he arrived in Japan, on Monday for the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7), holding in Japanese city of Yokohama from August 28 to 30.
In a statement by the special adviser to the president on media and publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the presidency urged Nigerians to disregard the story, especially on the social media that IPOB had staged a protest against the president in Japan.
It would be recalled that IPOB leader, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu had ordered members of the proscribed group in Japan disgrace and arrest the president upon his arrival in that country.
He told IPOB members to abduct the president and hand him over to the Japanese authorities for his supposed human rights violation between 2015 and 2019.
He added that his group would be ready for the legal consequences of its actions.
But in his statement, Adesina described any reports of an attack on the president as “the stock-in-trade of hate mongers, who do not realise that the rest of Nigerians have left them far behind.”
He said the president “will make his presence at the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) count for Nigeria, and no scare-mongering or sabre-rattling will detract (him) from the outing.”
The statement reads: “The proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group has had nothing to do with President Muhammadu Buhari since he arrived Yokohama, Japan, on Monday.
“Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora are urged to disregard concocted stories, backed with spurious visuals, of any protest or harassment of the President and his team.
“It is the stock-in-trade of hate mongers, who do not realise that the rest of Nigerians have left them far behind.
“President Buhari will make his presence at the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) count for Nigeria, and no scare-mongering or sabre-rattling will detract from the outing.”
