Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has accused the Imo State police and the Imo State government of parading innocent Igbos as members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN).
IPOB insisted that the people being paraded were not involved in ESN or IPOB activities.
It said the youths were being paraded based on trumped up charges in a bid to incriminate IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
IPOB in a statement signed by its media and publicity secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful said: “We, the IPOB, under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, have noted with great amusement, the desperation of the Imo State Commissioner of Police (CP), Abudu Yaro, in collaboration with Imo State government, to implicate the ESN and IPOB through trumped up and laughable allegations.
“This desperation, smear campaign and media propaganda are part of their agenda to blackmail IPOB and possibly establish grounds to indict our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, currently in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS). But they will not succeed because the world already knows the truth.
“We therefore wish to refute the claims by the Imo CP that the four persons paraded by the police in Imo were ESN operatives arrested while attempting to plant explosives in the state. There is no element of truth in such claims aimed at demonising ESN and portraying the gallant security outfit as a terrorist organisation, which it is not.
“We wish to put it on record that no ESN operative was involved in any attempt to plant bombs anywhere. What is the essence of planting such explosives? Who will be the victims? ESN can never engage in the killing of the same people it was created to defend. It doesn’t add up!”
“Importantly, ESN operatives are not missing in action. They have been on their duty posts dealing with the bandits and killer herdsmen in our forests and communities pursuing the Fulanisation agenda.
“Their mandate is to stop the wicked Fulanisation and Islamisation agenda, and that they have lived up to. The purported ESN members being paraded almost everyday by security agents don’t even know the meaning of ESN because they are not ESN members. These are innocent persons.
“The Nigeria security agents must stop arresting innocent Biafrans and tagging them ESN operatives. ESN operatives are human beings with conscience. They are not animals like bandits who bathe with human blood.
“Nigeria police and sister agencies must also stop linking ESN with their atrocities which they think they can smartly blame on ESN. They must stop wasting lives and public property in their desperation to nail ESN.
“We are aware that they are looking for ways to implicate our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, during his court proceedings but they will fail. ESN does not kill those they exist to protect. Members of the public should realise that the Nigeria security agencies are destroying Biafra land only to turn around and point accusing fingers at ESN and IPOB.”
