Gbajabiamila says IPOB and Yoruba Nation agitators are no different from Boko Haram

Femi Gabajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives has described the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Yoruba Nation agitators as miscreants and criminals masquerading as separationist activists.

The Speaker said the activities of IPOB members in the southeast and secessionist agitators in the southwest region are not different from that of Boko Haram terrorists.

Gbajabiamila said this on Wednesday, September 15, 2021, in his speech on resumption of the House of Representatives from the 2021 annual legislative recess.

The lawmaker, who expressed deep concerns over the growing insecurity in the country said, the agitators now take lives and commmit economic sabotage against fellow Nigerians.

He said, “We must now add to these concerns an emerging threat that presents the same clear and present danger.

“In the South of Nigeria, East and West, miscreants and criminals masquerading as separationist activists have emerged to wreak havoc, take lives and commit economic sabotage against fellow Nigerians and against the state.

“These people, in their inclination for devastating violence against fellow citizens, their appetite for the destruction of private property, their disruption of academic activities, commerce, and industry, their propensity for defiling institutions of the state, society and community, their refusal to engage in debate, or to consider the possibility of dissenting opinions and alternative viewpoints, are no different from Boko Haram and ISWAP.

“Given space and time, they will take our nation down the same path of destruction.

“Thus far, we have rightly focused our national security concerns on the machinations of extremist insurgents who seek to remake our world in the image of their discredited theocracy and bandits who maraud and terrorise whole regions for profit.

We know from experience that neither appeasement nor overwhelming violence alone will work.

“We have been down this road before; we know what the consequences of inaction can be.

“We also know that we cannot afford to be reactionary in our approach.

He further said it is time for the government to convene its best “efforts to articulate a political, economic, military and policing strategy to address both the manifestations and root causes of this emerging threat”.