Why we did not declare Fulani herdsmen as terrorist organisation – FG

…says it is ‘unfortunate’ that US did not see IPOB as terrorist organisation

The Federal Government has defended why it did not declare Fulani herdsmen as terrorist organization in the country.

This was revealed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed during an interview on BBC Focus Africa on Wednesday.

When the minister was asked why more violent groups like armed herdsmen who have killed hundreds of people across Nigeria were not declared terrorists, the minister said: “I think acts of terrorism should not be confused with terrorist acts,” the minister replied. “I just told you that when an organisation decides to set up its own parallel government; when an organisation openly solicits for arms all over the world; when an organisation has issued out its own passport and its own currency and there’s nothing wrong, … then it becomes a different thing.”

The Minister also described as “unfortunate” the fact that the U.S. does not see the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, as a terrorist organisation.

“That’s very unfortunate,” the minister said. “Because if countries decide to pick and choose which organisations are terrorists and which are not bearing in mind that terrorism has no boundaries, I think what we should do is, every country should work together to ensure that terrorism does not strive.”

According to Mohammed, the act and utterances of IPOB, led by Nnamdi Kanu, were acts of terrorists.

‘’The acts and utterances of IPOB were acts and utterances of terrorists. For instance Nnamdi Kanu was caught on tape saying that they want Biafra and not peacefully but by force and that if they don’t get Biafra, Somalia will be a paradise with the kind of mayhem,’’ he said.

Responding to a question on how a man without a weapon can be proclaimed a terrorist, the minister said: ‘’This is also the same man who opens a safe for arms and the same man who set up his own Biafra national gathering, his own Biafra secret service and the same man who actually attacked army formations’’.

TheNewsGuru.com reports that the federal government recently labelled IPOB a terrorist organisation after securing a court order following clashes between the group and security agencies.

The presenter queried further, ‘’Do you worry that IPOB can be driven underground, become a militarised militant because you declared them a terrorist organisation?”

Responding, Mohammed said, “Nigeria is so fragile that if we allow this kind of thing to go on and there are reprisal attacks on other parts of the country, the whole country will be endangered.”