The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has called on Oxford University to cancel the invitation sent to the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma.

IPOB stated this on Tuesday in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, alleging that the governor is the one behind kidnappings and killing in the state, and therefore does not deserve to be at any event organised by the prestigious university.

SaharaReporters gathered that a Nigerian professor in Oxford University, Onyeka Nwelue, on behalf of the institution invited Governor Uzodinma to attend its annual James Currey Literary event in London, United Kingdom.

But IPOB accused the governor and the Nigerian government of conspiring to kill the people of the Southeast region of the country, insisting that the governor is not worthy to attend the event scheduled for September 3 this year.

The group said Nwelue, who is one of the organisers of the event “should rather disassociate himself from such a brutal government than attempts to launder his image. There is an Igbo adage which says ‘eburu ozu onye ozo o dika ebu ukwu nku’ (When another person’s corpse is carried, it looks like a log of wood to an outsider)”.

The secessionist group in the statement said the invitation to the Uzodunma “is not only shameful but a spite on the grave of the foremost Biafra heroic writer Professor Chinua Achebe who was an associate of Professor James Currey in whose honor the event is being held”.

It further said, “IPOB is advising the acclaimed Professor Onyeka Nwelue to cancel that invitation given to Imo State Vampire, Hope Uzodinma or we have no other option than to declare him persona non grata in Biafraland. Anybody who knows him mostly his family members and friends should call Onyeka Nwelue to order.

“Acclaimed Prof. Nwelue should be guided so that IPOB will not cook food for him that he can’t finish. If he still cherishes his Igbo ancestry, he should listen to these words of advice and reason and stop this attempt the promote and launder the muddy image of a criminal and murderer.”

It urged the organisers of the event not to “jeopardise the reputation of Oxford University…”

It, therefore, called on the management of the university to cancel the invitation given to Uzodinma through Nwelue who “has zero regard for human rights abuses committed by his principal, Hope Uzodinma”.