Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, at a press conference in Lagos on Monday, said the country has tolerated the excesses of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and his hate speech for too long.
He referred to IPOB as a contraption against the Buhari administration, saying the government had to swing into action to prevent the organisation from creating more problems.
“IPOB might not have invented hate speech, fake news, misinformation, but it has employed these to push its agenda,” he said.
“The self-imposed IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is the master of hate speech. His supporters should listen closely to his inciting remarks and cruel statements. If such does not constitute hate speech, then tell me what hate speech is
“We have tolerated the excesses of Kanu for too long. Mention one country in the world where an organisation has set up a military organisation, confronted the national army and engaged in exploiting of people without consequences.
“There is nothing like genocide anywhere in our country today. What we have in the south-east is a clampdown on a band of lawless people who have no regard for the laws of the land.”
Mohammed alleged that the group had harvested fake videos of mass killings from other parts of Africa and doctored to look current.
He said this is to mislead the international community and win support.
“We must warn the nation against IPOB’s next line of action, which is to externalise their lies and propaganda,” he said.
“Now they are writing to the government and the national parliaments of some Western nations to give the impression that they are victims of violence orchestrated by the government, hence they need protection.
“Some of the tools that have been employed by IPOB include blatant lies and cheap propaganda, and the medium of choice for the organisation is the social media.
“IPOB has harvested gory videos and pictures from other lands and the distant past, which they are now circulating via the social media, to deceive the international community.”
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