By Okereke Udoakpuenyi and Ada Obeleagu, YeyeNews.com, October 7, 2021
Last month, the Monday weekly stay-at-home order that was unilaterally imposed on the Southeast and which started on August 9, 2021 was once again officially canceled by the executive of IPBO who originally mandated but rescinded it half-heartedly before it started in August. However, YeyeNews.com has learned that the reason the recent vociferous public cancellation was done by IPOB had everything to do with the plans of the presidency, the Department of State Security (DSS), the Department of Military Intelligence (DMI), and the office of Mujahideen Isah Ali Ibrahim Pantami and had little to nothing to do with the uproar that arose after two major atrocities perpetrated by IPOB enforcers of the stay-at-home order draw a national uproar and condemnation.
On Monday September 13, 2021, the enforcers of the order invaded Comprehensive Secondary School, Nkume in Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State and forced the students and teachers at the school to abandon the English examination for the West Africa Examination Council, WAEC. The armed invaders also set ablaze about eight motorcycles belonging to the teachers. In addition, another group of enforcers accosted and murdered an Anglican priest, Rev. Emeka Merenu, in Ihiteukwa, Orsu Local Govt in Imo State and set his car ablaze the same day.
An anonymous source told YeyeNews.com that IPOB was been strategic in failing to ensure the suspension of the order in practical terms after it called it off initially in late July. “IPOB had the power and reach to stop the enforcement but failed to do so. Therefore, everything that happened during the stay-at-home was done in the name of IPOB and IPOB should bear responsibility for that”, the source said.
The source, an insider in IPOB, claimed that IPOB finally came out last week to announce the suspension after it got intelligence information that the Presidency, the DSS, the DMI, and the office of Mujahideen Isah Ali Ibrahim Pantami (the terrorist sympathizer and apologist and Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy) have an advanced plan to cause mayhem or civil war in Igbo land.
The intelligence information, which was provided by a senior officer in DSS, alarmed IPOB and they decided to take preemptive actions. The plan, hatched by Mujahideen Pantami, with the code name Operation Southeast Implosion (OpSI) has reached the implementation stage. Under the first sub-plan of OpSI, the Nigerian government will secretly arm and empower a faction of MASSOB to oppose the lockdown. In a situation where this faction of MASSOB fails to mobilize as planned, the government will use another secessionist movement it has floated to do the job. An organization named Nzoputa Igbo (NI) or Igbo Liberators has been formed already, however, the OpSI prefers MASSOB as it has some roots and depth already.
The second sub-plan is to secretly empower Independent People of Biafra Nigeria (IPOBN), a pro-Nigeria Igbo group that will oppose the lockdown. IPOBN is a brainchild of Mujahideen Pantami and one of the governors of the Southeast and will have some Fulani herdsmen as some of its “action men.”
These two groups will be provided with arms and ammunitions, logistics, vehicles, intelligence, and everything needed to operate in the Southeast. They will operate from 34 Artillery Brigade Barracks, Obinze Owerri, Imo State but report to Mujahideen Pantami directly. When IPOBN and NI are deployed on the streets of Southeast and their activities disseminated in the media, the planners expect IPOB to oppose them therefore leading to open confrontations and hostilities.
Furthermore, the planners will surreptitiously provide arms to IPOB through a contact in Cameroon, however, IPBO, IPOBN and NI will not know where the arms and ammunition are coming from. This way there would be a balance of terror in the war that would start among the groups.
YeyeNews.com learned that when the plan was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari, the president and some in the Presidency, DMI, and DSS disagreed but Mujahideen Pantami was persistent and told the president that it was a golden opportunity to deal with the Southeast, that the stay-at-home order would spread to other regions if not dealt with. Buhari had told the organizers of OpSI that as long as the stay-at-home didn’t affect cows and his cow grazing routes plans, the ports and NNPC, and other parts of Nigeria like Lagos and Kano, Ndigbo should continue their stay-at-home and ruin the economy of the Southeast. According to the source, Buhari, who seemed irritated throughout the meeting and complained intermittently about his inefficient doctors in the United Kingdom and how they could not find the right medication for his constant constipation and indigestion, told them that he just ate, and that the food was yet to digest. He then proceeded to put his trademark toothpick in his mouth and told them to leave.
The DSS officer, whose father is Hausa and his mother Igbo, said he looked at Buhari with the toothpick in his mouth and understood the saying that ‘Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned’. “”Buhari is picking his teeth while Nigeria burns””, YeyeNews.com anonymous source quoted the DSS officer. When the meeting ended, Mujahideen Pantami stayed behind. Less than two hours later, OpSI received the approval of the presidency.
With the greenlight giving, the DSS officer who said he never believed such operation against a people would see the light of the day then became alarmed and deiced to contact IPOB.
The anonymous source told YeyeNews.com that IPOB executive debated the intelligence with some saying that the information was a plan by the Federal government to have them call off the stay-at-home. One person was quoted as saying, “They want to get into our head; they want to shut down the stay-at-home order without confronting us”. Some disagreed and said IPOB had no hand in the stay-at-home to start with and some miscreants were causing havoc all over Southeast in IPOB’s name. Moreover, students were taking WAEC examinations and, even though they did not need the support of Ohaneze and other Igbo efulefu politicians, they should not ignore people like Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, ex-Gov. Pius Ezeife and other concerned Ndigbo who were condemning the stay-at-home.
In the end, majority decided to come out forcefully in public and rescind the order.
When contacted by Yeyenews.com, the office of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy through its spokesperson denied the rumor and said it was fabricated by IPOB to appear as if they had interest of Ndigbo at heart.
