Proscribed secessionist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has claimed responsibility for the attack on Nigeria’s transport minister, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, yesterday in Madrid, Spain.

The group said its ‘branch’ in Spain followed an order by its leader, Mr Nnamdi Kanu, to “attack Nigerian leaders anywhere they are seen”.

The group’s spokesman, Mr Emma Powerful, stated this in a statement issued on the incident.

Amaechi had confirmed the attack through his Twitter handle.

The minister, however, noted that the police stepped in to prevent the attackers from injuring him.

He was in the country for a climate change summit.

His attack comes weeks after a former Deputy Senate President, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, was attacked in Germany by members of the group. No arrests were made.

Powerful said the order to attack Nigerian leaders was made before the attack on Ekweremadu.

“Yes, IPOB beat Amaechi, the transport minister, based on the standing order given by our leader, Kanu, to reprimand those politicians who think they have arrived.

“IPOB Spain, precisely, Madrid beat minister of transport Amaechi in Spain. The order was there before the attack on former deputy Senate President Ekweremadu in Nuremberg Germany.”

He warned that the group will carry out more attacks on “corrupt politicians for bringing untold hardship to the people”.

“IPOB is warning all those corrupt politicians who brought hardship to the people that we are waiting for them anywhere we meet or see them. We are telling the whole world why they must be dealt with because they are not sincere to the people to the suffering citizens.

“We ask them to retrace their steps, otherwise IPOB in the diaspora will continue to treat their foolishness anywhere around the world,” Powerful added.

Angry group

IPOB is a secessionist group in South-east of Nigeria that is fighting for an independent state of Biafra for the predominantly Igbo populated five states of the region.

Kanu remains in exile in Europe after a military invasion of his country home in Umuahia, Abia State in 2017.

The group was proscribed and declared a terrorist group by the federal government in 2017.

Kanu was charged with treason by the federal government and was on bail when the army invaded his country home.

His father died Friday months after his mother also died in Germany.

The group has blamed the military invasion as the major cause of their deaths.

PT