IPOB opposes naming of second Niger Bridge after Buhari – Nexus News
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has opposed the Federal Government’s alleged plans to name the second Niger Bridge after President Muhammadu Buhari when completed.
It also debunked the accusations by Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, that IPOB disrupted the construction of the second Niger Bridge, depicting the statement as false.
In a press release issued, yesterday, by the Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Emma Powerful, the group reported that Buhari watched helplessly, as bandits camouflaging as Fulani herdsmen attacked Biafran communities, killing innocent men and women, after destroying their farms with their cattle.
“The attention of the global movement and family of IPOB under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has been drawn to the plan by the Federal Government to name the second Niger Bridge after President Buhari.
“We restate our position and reject naming the second Niger Bridge after a Fulani man who came to power and completely sidelined our people. Under his watch, security agents have been slaughtering our youths with reckless abandon.
“IPOB is vehemently opposed to naming the second Niger Bridge after Buhari. The bridge should rather be named Achuzie Bridge or after other accomplished Igbo patriots. No big project has been named after any Igboman in the North,” it said.
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It further challenged Fashola to support his claims with evidence of how and when IPOB disturbed or interfered with the construction of the bridge by directly or indirectly stopping any local or foreign worker handling the project.
“The South East has more credible names and more important persons, like the late Chinua Achebe, Chu Okongwu, Cyprian Ekwensi, Alex Ekwueme, Michael Okpara, Akanu Ibiam, Mbonu Ojike and Kenneth Dike, among others, who the Federal Government can name the second Niger Bridge after,” the statement added.
The group reminded that the second Niger Bridge was awarded in 1979 by the Shehu Shagari tenure and that since then, no administration found it worthy to construct it.
IPOB further stated that its agitation for self-determination pushed the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration to unwillingly embark on its construction using the recovered funds past Nigerian politicians looted and stashed away in foreign countries.
