The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Usman Baba, on Wednesday described the agitation for Biafra in the South Eastern part of the country as a smokescreen for criminality.
He warned those behind the agitation that the government will not be intimidated by their activities.
Baba spoke in Amawbia, near Awka, Anambra State, during the inauguration of an ultra-modern divisional police station, attached to a police barracks for senior police officers.
He vowed that the police under his leadership will not spare criminals hiding under the guise of agitation to attack the people.
He lamented that agitators are committing crimes in the state and the entire South East by attacking police operatives and other public facilities in the name of calling for a separate state.
“Secessionist ideas will not continue like this. There are better ways to agitate, and the government will not be intimidated by these people. This is criminality, and the agitation for Biafra is just a smokescreen for criminality,” Baba said.
While describing security as everybody’s business, he urged communities to support vigilante operatives whom he described as key in crime fighting.
The police boss promised to support the state commissioner of police to ensure that there is law and order in the state.
He also promised that a level playing ground shall be provided for all politicians ahead of the 2023 elections.
Meanwhile, the Indigenous People of Biafra has insisted that Biafra’s agitation is not for criminal intentions as claimed by Baba.
The pro-Biafran group accused the Federal Government and security agencies of working with criminal elements to blackmail IPOB because it has refused to give up on Biafra restoration.
IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, in an interview with The PUNCH, said the IG was unnecessarily focusing on innocent Biafra agitators, while bandits and terrorists are being pampered in the North and even granted amnesty by the Federal Government.
He said, “It showed that the IG does not have anything to offer. He is busy condemning innocent Biafrans seeking freedom while bandits and terrorists are walking freely in the North.
“If not for the quota system, somebody like Baba should not be occupying the seat of the IG. Since he assumed that office, he has been talking about innocent Biafrans seeking their freedom.
“He does not have any job to do or what to say because without him talking about Biafra agitations, nobody will know that he came to Anambra State. They are just running like an aeroplane without a pilot, IPOB has defeated them without guns and bullets.”
