Why we called IPOB a terrorist group – Defence Minister

Mansur Mohammed Dan-Ali 

Minister of Defence, Brig-Gen Mansur Mohammed Dan-Ali has explained why the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was tagged as a terrorist group.

According to the Defence Minister, one of the characteristics of a terror group was hate speech, which Kanu and his co-agitators had been making against Nigerians and Nigeria.

Speaking during a courtesy call on the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, in New York, Prof Tijjani Bande,  the minister insisted that the international community cannot determine Nigeria’s internal security problem.

Said he, “There are many indices that make a group terrorist. One of them that has been mentioned in the country is that any group that is fond of making hate speeches, making provocative statements, becoming a security challenge to the country, then that group has to be registered as a terrorist group”.

He further added that the international community needed to look at what was going on in the country and know what IPOB was doing.

Speaking earlier, Prof Tijjani Bande thanked Dan-Ali for the visit, and said a lot of important persons come around, but are hardly seen in the Mission.

He said the fact that the minister created time to visit the Permanent Mission was something extremely important to the Mission.