FG points finger at France, UK over IPOB crisis

[dropcap]N[/dropcap]igeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed Wednesday has pointed the finger of blame at France, United Kingdom and some Nigerians in Diaspora for causing the IPOB woes, in a furious response to comments made about the IPOB.

“For instance, who does not know that the IPOB internal radio is located in London? We know the diplomatic moves we have been taking and approaching the UK, all the damage it has done; but they don’t see it that way. For them, it is about freedom of expression.”

“Let me tell you, the financial headquarters is in France, we know, but you see, can you as a government stop sending money to your parents? You have to block the sources of finance that is what I said recently.

“We have the records; we know IPOB collects money from many people from the diaspora, they collect money from many people in Nigeria. They collect money from some foreign countries; this is clear, the minister revealed.

“It is incontrovertible that some people in the diaspora contribute money to IPOB. We know this as a fact. Again, there are a few knotty diplomatic issues which you need to skip, he told State House correspondents.

“If we have a person in Nigeria openly soliciting arms to come and fight the UK, what would you think of it. Would you consider that freedom of expression? And this is a country that also has had a history; what did the Irish Repubublican Army (IRA) do to be labelled a terrorist organisation? They were planting bombs, they were fighting the British army.

“I don’t want any diplomatic row. We know for a fact where the funding is coming from and we are going to stop them but it is difficult to stop them and we have been working on it and we will not stop.”

The minister in his response was quick to blame the two European nations of doing very little about  the federal government’s  complaint that Biafra Radio was broadcasting from its territory.

”I think this is not rocket science. Any treasury looter would do everything possible to distract the government. If by any act, God forbid it, Nigeria is today engulfed in war, and Nigeria is now involved in trying to quell unrest, will the courts be spared? What would be the first priority of government? It will be to quell that riot, so it is a way of distraction to ensure that government is not focused.