Give answers to the questions

1. What is your reaction to this report on  damming from US Government

The report is welcome in so far as it drew the attention of the civilised world to the heinous atrocities being perpetrated by key actors in the Buhari regime, namely Fulani heads of security agencies and Fulani herdsmen. It also confirmed the widely held assumption that all the killings and atrocities taking place in Nigeria, either state sanctioned-like military murderous crackdown on civilian populations (IPOB & Shiite) or the unofficial carnage of Fulani terrorists are being undertaken by one ethnic group. The ever present factor in all the mass killings so far recorded is that they were all perpetrated by one specific ethnic group, the Fulani. 

Having said this, we have our reservations about the credibility of some of the local sources the authors of the report relied upon to reach the conclusions they did. It appears that Lai Mohammed's version of events and narrative was regarded as gospel hence it's inclusion in the report without third party corroboration. 

For example the report mentioned a possible clash between the army and IPOB members in Abia and Rivers State during the height of Operation Python Dance II on or about the 15th of September 2017 that led to the death of a police officer. This is factually inaccurate because it was the army that invaded our land to kill us. No clash ever took place between security personnel and IPOB. People were running for their dear lives as army opened fire on them. The story of a clash was mere government propaganda designed to justify the later proscription of IPOB and to cast our movement in a bad light before the world. The Nigerian Army came into our land to kill us albeit at the invitation of John Nnia Nwodo, Ohaneze Ndigbo and South East governors led by Dave Umahi. 

The report failed to mention in specific details the gruesome murder of 28 people during the invasion of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's residence. We are not happy about the omission of such crucial piece of evidence.  

2. How are you going to do  build on that in your agitation.

Our agitation is set on a specific trajectory we seldom depart from. For the time being we shall remain peaceful in our approach but continued brutalisation and excessive force may compel us to rethink because we know that after the ethnic cleansing in Benue State, the next target will be the heartland of Biafra and Enugu/Ebonyi to be precise. It's an eventuality we must be prepared for because Ohaneze Ndigbo and South East governors are mere slaves to the north. IPOB is unwavering in its pursuit of self determination anchored on the principles of non-violence. Only a referendum can settle the matter once and for all. 

3. Do you have specific number of your members killed, missing or in detention in the course of this agitation.

We don't have accurate figures because some of the bodies of those killed between the 10th and 14th of September 2017 were carted away by the army never to be seen again. A lot of victims were bathed in acid in Aba so identifying them has proved almost impossible. It would be fair to say that we have lost over a thousand people through summary executions, abductions, illegal detention and kidnapping. Until a comprehensive audit of all the detention facilities are carried out including DSS headquarters in Abuja, arriving at an accurate figure will be almost impossible. 

If you look at official records of all the massacres that happened at Mbiama River Bayelsa State, Igweocha (Port Harcourt), Enugu, Nkpor, Onitsha,  Aba 2016 & 2017, Umuahia, Trump Solidarity Rally Igweocha (Port Harcourt) we have lost about 1,241 people in total that we can physically identify. These are the people we know of and can account for because we physically counted the bodies at the various killing fields. Some that were badly decomposed beyond facial recognition were not counted because we couldn't identify them. There are many more that are unaccounted for buried in mass graves inside Onitsha army barracks and Asa barracks in Ngwa Abia State. 

We continue to hold Muhammadu Buhari, Tukur Buratai, Willie Obiano, Okezie Ikpeazu, Dave Umahi, John Nnia Nwodo and Ohaneze Ndigbo responsible for the deaths of our people. They will he made to pay for their crimes one way or the other. 

COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL, MEDIA AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.

Publisher: Prince Richmond C. Amadi