Ohanaeze Ndigbo on Monday said it had invited the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to its summit on restructuring, which is to hold in Awka, Anambra State, on May 21. IPOB had, in a statement on Sunday, vowed that it would not allow the event to take place.
The secessionist group warned Ohanaeze against going ahead with the planned summit, stressing that it would use any means, including violence, to stop the conference. However, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, had vowed that the summit would go ahead as planned.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chuks Ibegbu, said that the IPOB and other pro-Biafran groups had already been invited to participate in the summit. Ibegbu explained that an invitation was extended to IPOB even after the pro-Biafran group made initial threats when Ohanaeze first announced plans for the summit.
He added that Ohanaeze was not afraid of IPOB’s threats. “We are not worried over the threat; what else do you expect from them? The threat is not coming to us as a surprise but we have invited them (IPOB) to come and participate in the summit. “IPOB and other pro-Biafran groups including MASSOB (Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra) are invited.
“Whatever grouse they have, they should come to the summit and express it. Everybody is invited, so nobody is stopping them from coming,” Ibegbu said. The Ohanaeze spokesman did not disclose plans the association had put in place to stop IPOB from making good its threat. Asked what Ohanaeze would do to neutralise the IPOB threat, Ibegbu simply said the apex pan-Igbo body was protected by law.
Source: Punch
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