Ipob denies owning any of the camps recently bombed by the Nigeria Air Force in Imo and Anambra

SECESSIONIST group the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) has denied ownership of two military camps recently bombed by the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) in Anambra and Imo states earlier this week.

Yesterday, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, the Naf spokesman, said that air strikes had been launched against the two camps. He added that the camps belonged to Ipob and its armed wing the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and they were hit because they had planned imminent attacks in their states.

According to Commodore Gabkwet, the airstrikes were conducted following intelligence reports that the insurgents were planning to unleash terror on people in the area. However, Ipob spokesman Emma Powerful, said that the Naf lied, insisting that the group does not own camps in the areas mentioned.

Mr Powerful added: “We debunk the claims by the Nigerian Air Force of bombing Ipob’s ESN camps at Osumoghu in Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra State and Osuihiteukwa in Orsu Local Government Area, Imo State. We are bold to say that ESN does not have camps in any of the bombed locations.”

Ipob stated the bombed camps were those of terrorists sponsored by the leader of a splinter group, Simon Ekpa, who is based in Finland. It also condemned the action of Naf in bombing the locations, saying that while it protects terrorists in the north, it is deploying jets against those in the east.

Mr Powerful said: “The Nigeria Air Force should stop lying and blackmailing this peaceful Ipob with the so-called bombing of ESN camps. For public information, Ipob doesn’t operate camps in those locations, what Ipob has are offices in Biafraland and in the diaspora.

"We are not criminals or terrorists otherwise, civilised countries would not give us the freedom to gather in their countries. What Ipob has is the Eastern Security Network, whose primary duty is to secure our bushes and protect our people.

"The general public should ignore and disregard the rants of the Nigeria DSS-sponsored criminal and agent provocateur in Finland called Simon Ekpa and his gangsters who are always impersonating ESN to demonize Ipob and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The Nigeria Air Force must call those criminal camps they bombed by their names and not mention ESN or Ipob.”

 “As much as we detest the criminals impersonating Ipob and ESN in their violent activities in the name of the Biafra struggle, we nevertheless condemn the bombing of any part of Biafraland by the Nigeria Air Force. If the Nigeria Air Force has functioning fighter jets to bomb criminal hideouts in the rainforest of the southeast, why then have they not bombed terrorists and bandits who are in the open in the desert lands of the North?"