The puerile announcement by the Indigenous People of Biafra that it will  boycott the Special Board of Inquiry set up by the Nigerian Army to  investigate allegations of right abuses is both laughable and saddening  at the same time. It is laughable because it exposed the comical side of  the fraud that has been presented as a struggle for self determination  by a narrow group that has exploited the silence of the greater number  of Igbo people as acquiescence. It is saddening because it confirms that  the characters behind IPOB have become delusional to the point of  believing their own lies.
Their lies are such that at the height of the US Presidential Elections  they stopped short of labelling the Republican Candidate, Donald J  Trump an Igbo man. That period saw them tell lies that stood logic on  its head and should have been the red flag to see psychiatric help for  members of this group. Their claims at that time included bunkum like  Trump promising them the actualization of a defunct Republic. Trump’s to  do list allegedly included freeing the remanded IPOB gang leader, Nnamdi  Kanu even though he is standing trial for grievous offences.
The outcome of the election worsened the mass delusion of IPOB members  who behaved as if one of the world’s most enduring democracy runs on  whims. Yet this delusion revealed a sinister dimension to the extent  they will go to propagate lies in pursuit of a failed agenda. We are not  talking about some off the cuff inaccuracies here but something more  profound. They went to the pains of photoshopping misleading texts unto  pictures of President Trump holding up declarations he just signed –  the texts of these frauds are always to the effect that the US was  demanding Biafra independence. They went further to clone or mimic  responsible news organisations to be able to pass off such frauds as the  real deal. The only name for this sick act is called ‘fake news’. It is  bad. It is perverted and emanates only from those with criminal intents.
It was however not the first time that these frauds were deploying fake  news in furtherance of their doomed project. Fake news had been deployed  on a commercial scale to lie about the nature of the face-off their  radicalised wing had with the military; it had been deployed to announce  casualties from such encounters only that they run into problems showing  the body counts for their claims, which again forces them to deploy more  fake news about abductions and military seizing corpses of members who  are actually alive or never existed.
Possibly as indicated in their statement, issued by IPOB spokespersons,  Dr. Ikenna Chinaka and Iyom Grace Ukpai, announcing the boycott, these  fake news items become defacto research material for Amnesty  International that consequently trumpet it as its findings in reports  that IPOB in turn hinges its infantile claim upon. It hovers somewhere  between incest and masturbation for these groups to contrive falsehood  on this scale and with attention for details in a way that strongly  suggests it is not happening for the first time.
Allegations of extrajudicial killings, torture and other claims of human  rights abuses against the Army flourished on the strength of the fake  news. One would ordinarily expect that the decision of the authorities  in setting up the Special Board of Inquiry would be explored to surface  these claims of right violation if there is substance to them. But the  reverse is the case. Apparently because the IPOB militants know that  they have no evidence to back up their many claims the next reflexive  step is for them to announce a boycott of the inquiry.
The sad and comical aspect of that statement is that they went to a  great pain to cite the Nigerian Constitution, the same one they have  vowed never to recognise. They further advertised their befuddlement by  citing cases decided by the British courts, same country they accuse of  making them to be part of a zoo. The impression created is that of a  group of people caught in a mind loop and are unable to decide with any  degree of certainty whether they are going or coming. One is therefore  hard pressed to understand how a bunch of addled indolent refuse to  recognize a set of law – since the constitution of Nigeria connotes  its indivisibility, and the same time want to be treated by the same  instrument.
The intention to boycott the inquiry was let out of the bag with their  admission that it is meant to delegitimize the panel by claiming, in the  future, that they never appear before it. Yet, here is an IPOB for whom  the Special military board has already made concessions by refusing to  name it as an accused entity owing to the crimes it has committed in  the south east against Igbo interests. A consensus among right thinking  analysts is that many persons in Igboland would petition the board of  inquiry to bring the atrocities committed in furtherance of IPOB’s  interests to light.
These crimes against humanity include denial of means of livelihood in  the course of the several economic blockades that the group usually  impose – it has another one scheduled for May 30th this year. Other  things it would be accused of before the panel are forced disappearance  of persons opposed to its ideologies, murder – including killing of  security operatives, extortion, radicalization of youths, gun running  and a barge load of infractions that should see the entire members and  leadership of IPOB taking a trip to the Hague.
If IPOB has facts and evidence of abuse and extra judicial execution by  the Nigerian Army it should then be bold to step forward and present  same since the inquiry is in the full public glare with the media  reporting proceedings. Its presentation before the panel could be the  precursor to a larger investigation but that is only if what it would  present would not be another staple of fake news similar to the fabled  Donald Trump’s endorsement of IPOB’s. It turned out Trump detests fake  news and its purveyors and would no doubt have placed this dangerous  group on his backlist by now, a reality that was not undone by the  infantile solidarity march that was a cover for launching attacks  against security personnel in Nigeria.
There is a last minute face saving window for these recalcitrant  elements by way of the decision of the South-East Governor’s forum to  intervene and appeal for a soft landing for them. The decision is no  doubt informed by the apparent hurt that IPOB’s insurrection is causing  the economy of the region. Sadly, this well intentioned intervention was  again hijacked by characters that have been addicted to fake news to the  extent that they keened about how south-east governors warn federal  government over Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader standing trial for treason.
This behaviour highlights the fact that IPOB members have no interest in  political solution and they are allergic to peaceful approach to issues  – there is no incentive for them to pursue political solutions since  they have never bothered to position themselves to win council ward so  they are not primed to win offices they can use to politically sway  decisions in favour of their ill conceived quest.
The disdain they have for constituted authority is thus mirrored in the  rudeness with which they treat political leaders from their region,  which makes the disdain they treat the federal government and its  institutions with negligible. One must first respect one’s kinsmen  before extending the product of that upbringing to others.
This piece would not be complete without urging the Special Board of  Inquiry not to be fazed by tantrums from IPOB as it is a known trait of  losers. There are other parties that have indicated willingness to  appear before the panel and the boycott by IPOB would not in anyway  invalidate its outcome as this is a solution finding process and not a  popularity contest. Let the board follow best practice in extending  invitation to all and sundry by adequately publicizing same and the  world can then judge who the abuser is.
Written by Charles Ibekwe.
