O’odua Peoples Congress on Saturday hit back at the former Chief of Army Staff and ex-minister of interior, Lt. Gen. Abdurahman Dambazau likening the group to Boko Haram.
OPC described Dambazau as “suffering from acute dementia and gradually losing touch with the realities of the moment.”
The group spoke in reaction to Dambazau’s statement likening OPC as well as the Indigenous People of Biafra to Boko Haram.
“We see parallels between BH, a religious extreme group and the IPOB and OPC, both ethnic extremist groups. All the three groups operate on the platform of extremism,” Dambazau had said while delivering a lecture to participants of course 5, 2021, Army War College Nigeria.
But in a reaction on Saturday, OPC Publicity Secretary, Yinka Oguntimehin, stated that Dambazau’s statement could heat up the polity and disrupt national peace.
The group’s spokesman said, “Dambazau’s statement that OPC and IPOB are very much the same as the dreaded Boko Haram was made in bad faith and such statements have raised some fundamental questions about his intentions, interests and morality as a former COAS and minister of Interior that have allegedly been supporting the bandits by offering both financial and technical support to the group.
“Such high profile ex- military officer cannot be trusted in the fight against insurgency because he had on several occasion pleaded on their behalf”.
He stressed that the OPC cannot be equated with Boko Haram which he said had been globally adjudged as “the third most dreaded terrorist groups in the world.
“And up till today it remains as such with various cases of killings across the North.”
OPC noted that Boko Haram and bandits have taken over four states in the North and Dambazau had never condemned their atrocities.
“So, from his statement, it shows that the ex-minister is not in his right frame of mind, because when bandits killed a foremost Oba in Ondo, he didn’t talk. When other respected leaders from the north held meeting on the critical security situation in the country, he didn’t attend,” OPC added.
The group’s spokesman stated further that the group has since its existence in 1994 remainrd one of the most dependable organisations that have been defending the interest of the people of the South-West.
He added, “OPC has never been involved in any act of insurgency, including kidnapping or killings. Our group has been at the vanguard of supporting the police and providing information that can help the police in ensuring effective security at the grassroots.
“For instance, during the ENDSARS protests, OPC came to the rescue in the southwest and we protected the police stations and the police formations against unscrupulous rioters that had hijacked the peaceful protests.”