Members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who have been agitating for the secession of the southeast from Nigeria are wont to get a raw deal as President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, restated his threat to deal with them ruthlessly.
Recall that the president had recently touched Nigerians on the raw when he vowed to treat “misbehaving” Igbo in “the language they understand.”
He made the declaration after he was briefed by senior officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), led by its chairman, Mahmood Yakubu.
The commission had complained about the destruction of its facilities, especially in the southeast.
The president went on Twitter to declare: “Many of those misbehaving in certain parts of the country were obviously too young to know the travails and loss of lives that attended the Nigerian civil war.
“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand. We are going to be very hard sooner than later.”
Speaking again on the subject matter on Arise Television, Buhari stated emphatically that brute force would be visited on the secessionist campaigners.
“We will organise the police and the army to pursue them. We will respond to them in the language they understand, that is what we will do.”
Buhari described IPOB as a dot in a circle that has nowhere to go.
“That IPOB is just like a dot in a circle. Even if they want to exit, they will have no access to anywhere.
“And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses and properties, I don’t think IPOB knows what they are talking about,” he added.
However, the president said he had been assured by “the elderly people” and “the youths” from the south-south part of the country that their region has no secessionist agenda.
“I was encouraged by what I heard, nobody told me. Two statements from the south-south. One by the elderly people, they said this time around there would be no (secession). And again the youth made the same statement; such encouragement,” Buhari said.
The President however declined to answer a question posed to him regarding his stance on Twitter ban.
“I will keep that to myself,” he said
Recall that the minister of information and culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed had last Friday announced indefinite suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria, citing the persistent use of the Twitter platform for activities considered inimical to the corporate existence of the country.
Buhari made a promise of war wherein he threatened to deal with secessionists “in the language they understand.”
Twitter deleted the tweet which it considered a violation of its rules.
Consequently, the federal government slapped an indefinite suspension on the social media networking site stated that Twitter the other social media firms wanting to operate in Nigeria must register as a local entity and be licensed.
