The group warned the organisation led by Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu not to go to Sokoto to apologise to the Fulani people for the coup, which has been tagged as ‘Igbo coup’ in some quarters.
The Indigenous People of Biafra has warned pan-Igbo organisation Ohanaeze Ndigbo against apologising over the 1966 military coup on behalf of the Igbo people.
IPOB made this known in a statement issued by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, at the weekend, threatening that an order would be given to treat anyone who identifies themselves as an Ohanaeze Ndigbo member - at home and in the Diaspora - as a criminal and traitor should the organisation apologise to northern Nigeria for the coup.
The group warned the organisation led by Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu not to go to Sokoto to apologise to the Fulani people for the coup, which has been tagged as ‘Igbo coup’ in some quarters.
The statement reads in part, "Ohanaeze has crossed the red line by attempting to go and apologize to the Fulani terrorists for what the clueless Ohanaeze called forgiveness from the Caliphate for Igbo military officers involvement in the 1966 coup that led to the death of Sir Ahmadu Bello.
“By the abominable planned visit of Ohaneze Ndigbo will be on record as aggressors instead of victims.”
It said, "Ndigbo never sent military officers to stage a coup for them or to murder on their behalf. Nevertheless, the 1966 coup that was carried out by the young military officers from all the ethnic groups in Nigeria was viciously tagged as Igbo coup. Why was the military coup led by Murtala Muhammed, Babangida, Buhari, Abacha and other Northern military officers not tagged Hausa or Fulani coup?”
"And an order will be given to treat anyone that identifies himself or herself as an Ohanaeze Ndigbo member both at home and in the Diaspora as a criminal and traitor and will be treated as one. In fact, going forward, Ohanaeze Ndigbo should stop speaking or representing Ndigbo,” it added.
However, Iwuanyanwu has said that Ohanaeze never had the intention to apologise for the 1966 coup.
According to him, the coup was strictly a military affair.
Addressing journalists in Owerri, the Imo State capital at the weekend, Iwuanyanwu said, “We can’t go to beg anybody. Igbos were killed in that coup. As far as Ohanaeze Ndigbo is concerned, Igbos did not have any affair with the 1966 coup. It was purely a military affair.
“It’s not true, it’s fake news. The man that even carried the fake news has apologised. What happened was that we had a retreat at Enugu. Nobody talked about it. The only thing we did was to appoint a peace and reconciliatory committee because we want peace for our people in Lagos and everywhere else.
“First of all, Igbo didn’t carry out any coup. People who were killed were not killed by Ndigbo; they were killed by soldiers. Igbos didn’t kill anybody. The coup was carried out by soldiers.
“It was purely a military affair; nothing to do with the Igbo. We have no reason to apologise to anybody.”
Iwuanyanwu said he had never accepted responsibility for the coup.
“Nobody told Nzeogu to do coup, just like nobody told the others that did coup in Nigeria,” he added.
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