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‘My life is in danger,’ Uju Anya cries out following her tweet about Queen Elizabeth

Anya says linking her to IPOB could prompt the Nigerian government to consider her a terrorist.

Uju Anya ( Laura Petrilla)

In an interview with ThePunch, Anya, who is a Professor of Second Language Acquisition, Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University, United States of America, said her life has been under threat since she tweeted about the Queen.

How the issue started: On Thursday, September 8, 2022, while the Queen was on her deathbed, Anya tweeted, “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.”

Anya’s controversial tweet sparked a global conversation on Twitter about colonialism and Britain’s alleged support for the Nigerian government against the Igbos during a civil war that lasted for three years in Nigeria.

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The criticism against Anya: Reacting to her tweet, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, said he does not think someone whose job is to make the world better should put out such a tweet.

The management of Carnegie Mellon University, where Anya works as a lecturer has also distanced itself from the tweet saying it does not condone the 'offensive and objectionable' message the professor published on her Twitter page.

Subsequently, Twitter took down the tweet for violating its rules.

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But according to the professor, since Thursday, people have been creating fake accounts on Facebook to impersonate her and spread lies against her.

She said some people have also linked her to the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), adding that they were using her for a political movement she does not align with.

Anya says linking her to IPOB could prompt the Nigerian government to consider her a terrorist.

Anya's Words: “I feel like my life is in danger. I don’t feel safe anymore because of these lies being peddled around against me. I left Facebook four years ago. I don’t have a Facebook account. People are putting out fake statements, saying I am a member and financier of IPOB or Independent Biafra or any political candidate like that, and they are using a fake Facebook account that bears my name. It is a lie. There is nothing like that.

“Some online blogs have been peddling fake rumours about me. I have not issued any statement since Thursday. The PUNCH is the first and (will be) the only Nigerian medium I have spoken to.

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“It is urgent that the world knows that these people are trying to put me in harm’s way. Nothing that anybody sees with my name on Facebook is true. I am not a member of IPOB.

“They are using me for political movements and messages that I do not align with, and they are seriously damaging me and my safety.

“This is going to be a huge problem for me. What if the Nigerian government considers me a terrorist and wants to arrest me? They are putting my life in danger.”

Despite the barrage of criticisms trailing her controversial tweet, Anya has been unapologetic as she recently doubled down on her disdain for the Queen.

In an interview with a news platform, The CUT, Anya questioned how the late Queen's crown was gotten in the first place.

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She alleged that the crown Elizabeth wore was not her own but was rather “plundered from the lands they exploited and extracted.”

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