We don't kill our own - IPOB denies killing Igbo Muslim cleric | Politics

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has said that the Federal Government lied about the group killing an Igbo Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Iyiorji in Ebonyi State.

IPOB said this in a statement signed by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful and titled, ‘IPoB does not know Sheikh Iyiorji, let alone who killed him’.

The proscribed group posed a few questions to the Federal Government and a North-based newspaper.

IPOB said they must answer the questions: “Why will IPOB kill an Igbo Islamic cleric, and whether the alleged killed cleric was a threat to the Biafra movement, and how many of IPoB’s known enemies have been killed in the past, let alone killing their own, irrespective of his religion?”

The group reaffirmed that it does not engage in barbaric killings and advised the Federal Government to stop trying to set it up.

“We the global movement and family of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, under the leadership and command of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to disassociate ourselves from the alleged murder of a purported Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Iyiorji, in Ebonyi State.

“IPoB does not engage in such barbaric killings and cannot be part of such heinous crime against humanity. IPoB does not kill flies, not to talk of human beings and an Igbo man for that matter, irrespective of his religious belief.

“Is the alleged killed Igbo cleric a threat to the Biafra movement? How many of our known enemies have we killed, let alone killing our own, an Igbo man?

“We are aware that some unscrupulous elements and petty thieves are constantly being stage-managed by security agents to lie against IPoB members and ESN operatives. We also understood that the government and its compromised security agencies some time in the recent past arranged to condemn and hardened criminals from prisons and tutored them to claim that they were members of IPoB and ESN.

“A young man was also told to claim to be both IPoB, ESN and member of an unknown gunman that killed many security agents and burnt down their police stations in the southeastern region, all in an attempt to lie and demonize IPoB.

“We won’t accept stage managing criminals to tarnish the image of IPoB/ESN, not today and not ever. IPoB and ESN have never killed any army officer, police officer, or DSS operative despite all provocations in the name of unknown gunmen, We have never killed anybody since we started the pursuit for Biafra freedom, and we will not change to become killers, we abhor shedding innocent blood,”