Against IPOB, Buhari uses the Army. Against El Zakzaki and his group ,Buhari uses the Army. But when it comes to herdsmen, he calls for prayers.

“I’m Now Realising My Foolishness, FG
Proscription Of IPOB Indrectly Tags Me, An
Igbo Man A Terrorist – Nnia Nwodo
By Exclusive admin - June 30, 20180
Chief John Nnia Nwodo, the President
General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, at the
weekend said that the declaration of the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a
terrorist organisation was an attempt by the
Federal Government to profile Igbo people
at the international security arena.
Nwodo stated this while delivering a lecture
at the Enugu State University of Science and
Technology (ESUT) Business School, Enugu,
on Saturday.
He also re-affirmed Ohanaeze’s utmost belief
in the call by the Southern and Middle Belt
Leadership Forum and a number of other
well-meaning Nigerians for a new
constitution for a politically restructured
Nigeria similar to the 1963 arrangement.
Chief Nwodo said he viewed the declaration
of IPOB as a terrorist organisation as
hurried, unfair, and not in conformity with
the intendment of the law.
The two-time minister said whereas he was
not completely in agreement with some of
the methods of IPOB, like its inappropriate
and divisive broadcasts, the uncontested
evidence given by the Attorney General of
the Federation in an interlocutory action
claiming that IPOB attempted and/or actually
snatched guns from law enforcement
agents, if proven, were merely criminal
offences.
He insisted that the said offences IPOB were
accused of did not constitute enough
evidence to meet international law
definition of terrorism.
Nwodo noted that the United States
embassy in Nigeria shared this conclusion
and asserted that the United States
government did not recognise IPOB as a
terrorist organisation.
He said: “This same unarmed IPOB that is
being stigmatised by the Nigerian
government had its members murdered in
Asaba, Nkpor, Aba and Port Harcourt simply
for having public demonstrations without
the Federal Government ordering a judicial
inquiry.
“Instead, after I called for one and Amnesty
International provided evidence that 150 of
them were killed, the Chief of Army Staff set
up an inquiry, composed of serving and
retired members of the armed forces,
thereby compromising the rules of natural
justice which prescribes that you cannot be
a judge in your own case.
“The Igbos in Nigeria feel the treatment of
IPOB as unfair, discriminatory, and an
overkill.
“They see the move as an attempt to
encourage a profiling of Igbos in the
international security arena.
“We know of other self-determination
groups in Nigeria that are armed and have
destroyed government and private sector
installations and wells that government
prefer to negotiate with rather than
labelling them as terrorist organisations.
“Fulani herdsmen, otherwise called the
Fulani militants, have ravaged farms in
Middle Belt, South West, and South Eastern
Nigeria, killing several farmers in the
process. In January 2016, they killed 500
farmers and their families in Agatu in Benue
State.
“This year alone, over 1000 people have
been murdered by them in the Middle Belt
and many more displaced from their homes.
“In Enugu State, they murdered more than
100 farmers in Ukpabi Nimbo in April 2016.
“Photographs depicting them with
automatic rifles trend in the entire world
media, yet not one of them is facing criminal
charges, nor is ‘Operation Python Dance’
being conducted in the areas where they
ravage and kill and the Federal Government
describes them as criminals and not a
terrorist organisation, notwithstanding their
classification by the Global Terrorist Index as
the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the
world (see British Independent Newspaper
of 12th July 2016 which indicated that
Fulani herdsmen killed one thousand people
in 2014).”
He said the recent deployment of soldiers to
South East in ‘Operation Python Dance’ was
unfortunate.
According to the Ohanaeze leader,
deployment of the army was only allowed in
circumstances of insurrection, terrorism,
and external aggression not in preventing
the killing of priests or fighting kidnapping.
He explained that in those circumstances
where they could be deployed, leave of the
Senate must be sought, stressing that this
brazen impunity in dealing with matters
which concerned the South East was
provocative.
On the issue of restructuring, Nwodo said:
“Now, let us look at the statistical evidence
that made the argument for restructuring
compelling.