Headlines
Dambazau’s Comparison of IPOB, OPC to Boko Haram Reckless, Unguided – MASSOB
The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has attacked a former Chief of Army Staff and Minister of Interior, Lt.Gen. Abdulraham Dambazau (retd.), for comparing the Indigenous People of Biafra, O’odua People’s Congress and other pro-Biafra agitators with a terrorist group, Boko Haram.
MASSOB described as unguided and reckless the utterances of the former minister, maintaining that such comments were also debasing and unprofessional.
It noted that it was Dambazau’s kinsmen who he described as Fulani herdsmen that were terrorising and destroying Nigeria.
Dambazau, speaking on Friday in Abuja at the inauguration of Army War College Nigeria Course 5/2021, said the proscribed IPOB and the OPC shared similarities with the terrorist group, Boko Haram.
He added that both the OPC and IPOB were making attempts to plunge the nation into an ethnic war.
But MASSOB in statement on Sunday by its National Director of Information, Edeson Samuel, said for Dambazau to compare an internationally accredited terrorist group with self-determination organisations without condemning the atrocities of his kinsmen, Fulani herdsmen, across the country showed conspiracy and Jihadist agenda in the South.
The statement partly read, “It is a well known fact that IPOB, OPC, MASSOB and other self-determination groups in Nigeria are engaged in a legitimate self-determination struggle for our people’s liberation from the series of slavery the British yoked us with the Hausa Fulani-dominated Nigeria Enterprise with their Islamic and Sharia hostages.
“How can a man who has served in the military as Army General suddenly become myopic and exhibit loss of his sense of reasoning by comparing IPOB, OPC to Islamic terrorist Boko Haram?
“The Fulani from Sudan, Mali, Niger and Libya are now residents in Nigeria. They are in our rural villages as shoe menders, water well diggers, okada riders and tailors waiting to execute their plans of overtaking the Southern and Middle Belt regions.
“The coordinated synergy of all pro-independence agitators in Biafra, Oduduwa and Middle Belt lands will always resist the Fulani domination.
The Punch
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
