OPC fires Ex-Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Dambazau (retd), for comparing it with, Boko Haram.

By Our Correspondent

The O’odua People’s Congress(OPC) on Saturday, lambasted the former Chief of Army Staff and Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd), for comparing it with the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

In a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Yinka Oguntimehin, and published by The Punch Newspapers, the group said Dambazau was noted for unguarded utterances.

"It accused the ex-minister of losing touch with reality."

According to the newspapers, Dambazau, while speaking on Friday in Abuja at the inauguration of Army War College Nigeria Course 5/2021, had said the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) and the OPC shared similarities with the terrorist group, Boko Haram. 

"He added that both the OPC and IPOB were making attempts to plunge the nation into an ethnic war.", the newspapers reported.

While reacting to Dambazau's statement, the OPC reportedly noted that "the ex-minister’s statement was capable of heating up the polity and disrupting national peace."

According to The Punch, the OPC said, “From his statement, it is obvious that the ex-COAS is gradually losing touch with the reality of this time. His statement that OPC and IPOB are the same as the dreaded Boko Haram was made in bad faith and such statement has raised some fundamental questions about his intentions, interests and morality as a former COAS and minister of interior. 

"For such a person to have said that OPC is the same as Boko Haram, it is not only derogatory but the most unfortunate, to say the least.”

Oguntimehin stated that Boko Haram was adjudged globally as the third most dreaded terrorist group in the world, adding that to date, it remained as such with various cases of killings across the North.’’