President Muhammadu Buhari has slammed the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) for unleashing terror on the South-East and parts of the South-South, describing them as thieves and terrorists.
The president said this in a statement by his media aide Garba Shehu on Sunday.
Mr Buhari, however, maintained that to achieve success, communities must unite against these horrific attacks, saying retributive violence was not the answer.
He challenged religious, traditional, and community leaders on the need to preach peace and preventing violence.
”Attempts to simplify the reasons into a basic narrative may help raise donor-dollars for international NGOs, fill pages of overseas newspapers and burnish foreign politicians’ faith credentials,” argued Mr Buhari. “But this does not increase understanding, nor offer solutions. If anything, simplistic theorising and finger-pointing make the situation worse.”
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He pointed out that “it is important both for Nigerians and the international community to appreciate that there are” a multitude of factors responsible for the worsening insecurity in Nigeria.
Mr Buhari further explained that “there are no religious connotations at all when the primary purpose of these acts is to extract money.”
The president insisted that the “herder-farmer” violent conflict was a matter of “water and land,” not religion.