August 07, (THEWILL) – A separatist group in southern Cameroon, Ambazonia, has denied claims of a purported alliance with the proscribed South-east separatist movement, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Reports emerged in May that the two separatist groups fighting for their own independent nations have joined forces to break up the countries where they believed are marginalising them.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by a supposed leader of the Ambazonia Governing Council, Dr. Cho Ayuba, and Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB last April.
But the interim government of the English-speaking Cameroonians led by Samuel Sako in a virtual Press Conference on Friday, denied the claim.
Cho Ayuba said: “We want to make it clear to the Nigerian government that we have no alliance whatsoever with the IPOB of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. We have none. The so-called alliance that supposedly occurred this April was an evil orchestration by the French Cameroon State, and maybe the French Secret Service to serve as a bogeyman to cower the Nigerian state into an unholy alliance against the legitimate aspirations of the people of Southern Cameroon.
“I will not endorse IPOB. That’s the position we have taken and the position we are taking.”
Sako said because of the false allegations that most of his people are being arrested unlawfully.
“They are not security threats to the territorial integrity or security of the country of Nigeria. They are not and cannot be. They are arrested and extorted for seeking a place of refuge. They are running for their lives and would want to go back to their place.”
He disclosed that more than 200,000 Ambazonians fled the troubled region in Cameroon to seek refuge in Nigeria, mainly in Taraba, Cross River and Akwa Ibom States.
He emphasized that the region has had nothing to do with the South-East since 1953 when they left to be part of Cameroon.
Their agitations to be an independent nation have met stiff opposition from the French-speaking Cameroon state.
Sako said that since 2017, Cameroon has declared a brutal war on them.
However, he pleaded with the Nigerian government to continue treating “our refugees according to international law. They are desperate. They’re hungry, living without shelter: Many with no education, maybe without hope. Please, in the name of God, continue to treat them with love and care. We are not in any way trying to destabilise the agenda of the unity of the country. We are not breaking anybody”
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