The Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC) has drawn the attention of foreign missions to plots by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and their cohorts to blackmail the immediate past service chiefs.
According to the group, the proscribed group and their NGO members through their petition aims to criminally malign the country’s former military heads and ultimately scuttle their imminent confirmation as ambassadors.
The SHAC raised this alarm on Monday at a press conference in Abuja.
In his address, Comrade Ogbe Owoicho, Director, Foreign Affairs said the petition has all the handwritings of the Eastern Nigeria’s Rights and Intelligentsia Coalition.
Owoicho noted that it is laughable that the petitioners called for the diplomatic community to disqualify the former service chiefs over falsehood.
While disclosing that such is the responsibility of the Senate, Comrade Owoicho called on these foreign nations to disregard the rants contained in the letters that were delivered to embarrass their diplomatic missions.
He noted that it is pertinent that the nation professes themselves as friends of Nigeria immediately to put this coalition in its place.
The group, however, urged the Federal Government to note that complacency is no longer an option given the repeated diplomatic salvos that the Eastern Nigeria’s Rights and Intelligentsia Coalition have fired against the country.
To avoid future occurrence, it further called on Nigerian authorities to slam the groups in the coalition and the people behind them.
THE FULL STATEMENT:
”Gentlemen of the press, you must have read or learnt about the petition reportedly written by a coalition of NGOs to the diplomatic missions of as many as 31 countries. The subject of the said petition is to criminally malign the persons and personalities of the immediate past Service Chiefs of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria viz: the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai (retd.), his air force and navy counterparts, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (retd.), and Vice Admiral Ibok Ete-Ibas (retd.) and the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Abayomi Olonisakin (retd.).
“The so-called coalition requested the 31 foreign missions in Nigeria to disqualify these eminent Nigerians, who President Muhammadu Buhari has nominated as ambassadors. They also want the recipients of their letters to declare these patriotic Nigerians as persona non grata in their countries.
“Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC) has taken time to review news report of the petition and made certain findings that should concern Nigerians, including you, gentlemen of the press.”
