The leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has urged the National and Assembly to give deaf ears to the plea of President Muhammad u Buhari, for a passage into law of the National Water Resources Bill.
IPOB in a statement, on Saturday, said it was not in support of the Bill, citing an ulterior motive.
The group said that it is an attempt by the president to control the water ways thereby granting Fulani’s passage into their territory to encroach it.
They consider it an attempt by the president to steal their ancestral land and warned that for the safety of the Fulani’s, the bill should be scrapped and thrown in the dustbin as any Fulani seen around their waterways or land encroaching will be thoroughly resisted and dealt with.
The Bill which is considered controversial given the ethnic sentiment attached to it, had been presented to the both chambers of the National Assembly in 2017.
The bill seeks to hand over the control of resources from the state to the Federal Government.
The tension died down after a while, but it resurfaced on the floor of the House of Representatives penultimate onThursday.
According to the statement, which was signed by the group’s Director of Media and Publicity, Emma Powerful, it was expedient for the National Assembly to listen to the voice of caution in order to save both the Fulanis and their alleged ulterior motive in southern Nigeria, especially Biafraland.
The statement read in part, “We, the global movement and family of the Indigenous People of Biafra, wish to call for caution once again over the water ways secret bill sent to the Nigerian National Assembly by Buhari and his Fulani kinsmen.
“We wish to unequivocally state our stand once again to Buhari, the National Assembly, the Fulani and entire world that Buhari cannot use crooked means to hand over our water ways in Biafraland to Fulani from Futajalon, having passed through mighty expanse of empty land in the North. We never for once in our lifetime ventured into encroachment nor occupation of any inch or parcel of land not belonging to us despite our limited landspace.
“The National Assembly must save Fulani because this Bill sent by Buhari will consume so many of them if they venture into any river or water way situated in Biafraland.
“The National Assembly must stop that Bill because it will only end up in the dustbin of history as one of the useless non-implementable acts of the Nigerian National Assembly. This deliberate attempt to steal our ancestral land and waterways by trick and through the back door is dead on arrival because it will be resisted with everything that we have at our disposal. Such impunity and selfishness considering the vast expanse of land available to Fulani in Northern Nigeria.
“Biafrans would not shy away from protecting our heritage. We are waiting for them and they would learn an unforgettable lessons the hard way.
“This old strategy that Buhari and his kinsmen are adopting to re-introduce RUGA is not lost on us Biafrans or lost on any other nation imprisoned in the hell of a country that is worth its name. Why must Fulanis’ terrorists and their cows be forced on us, to cohabit with us in our communities, those with whom we never share a single value system.
“Let us tell you, RUGA can never sail through for the sake of Umuchineke and no amount of their efforts would succeed in bringing RUGA evil project to fruition in our land.
“The IPOB will never accept such permutations no matter the inducement they use to deceive the gullible, the compromised, the spineless good for nothing politicians and slaves of the uncircumcised Fulanis in Biafraland.
“We reject that in totality, we knew that the impostor wants to secure lands and waterways for Fulani bandits and terrorists before he leaves office in less than one year, let him look elsewhere.”
