IPOB: It’s not in our mandate to attack security personnel, prisons

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has denied carrying out the attacks on the federal prison and police command headquarters in Owerri, Imo state.

Emma Powerful, IPOB spokesman, said it is not in the group’s “mandate” to perpetrate such crimes.

TheCable had reported how the two facilities were attacked by gunmen who freed prisoners in the early hours of Monday.

Some police vehicles were also razed in the incident which an unnamed official blamed on IPOB.

But reacting via a statement, Powerful said the information linking the group or its security outfit known as the Eastern Security Network (ESN) is fallacious.

He said: “The attention of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been drawn again to the fallacious and fabricated news that IPOB and ESN are involved in the attack of prison and police headquarters in Owerri Imo State. IPOB and ESN are known groups not unknown gunmen.

“IPOB and ESN were not involved in the attack in Owerri Imo State, and the recent attack on Onitsha Owerri road at Ukwuorji junction. It is not our mandate to attack security personnel or prison facilities.

He added that IPOB — which has been outlawed as a terrorist organisation — was “formed on the principle of peace and we are still in it.” 

“Unknown gunmen is a different people which we don’t know them and they not IPOB or ESN security outfit,” he said.