President Muhammadu Buhari has accused the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) of being behind oil theft and pipeline vandalism, causing Nigeria to fall short of its daily production quota.

Despite appointing himself as petroleum minister to oversee the oil and gas sector, Mr Buhari’s regime has recorded one of the nation’s worst energy crises; evidenced by acute fuel scarcity and more than 100 per cent hike in cooking gas prices.

As of today, cooking gas which was sold for between N300-350 per kg in 2015, before Mr Buhari assumed office, now sells for N1,000 per kg, causing citizens to question his leadership both as the nation’s president and petroleum minister.

Commenting on the matter in a Q and A session with U.S.-based publication, Bloomberg, Mr Buhari blamed the crisis on IPOB, accusing its members of vandalising pipelines, thereby hampering production. He called on foreign nation’s to designate IPOB a terrorist group.

“Criminality and terrorism in oil-producing regions hamper production, and it would help if our western allies designated IPOB as a terrorist group, given their complicity in damage to pipelines and infrastructure,” Mr Buhari claimed in the interview.

Mr Buhari claimed the separatist group had found solace in foreign countries, funding members in the country through international financial networks.

“We urge those same international partners to take additional steps costing them nothing, by proscribing another group – IPOB – as a terrorist organization. Their leadership enjoys safe haven in the West, broadcasting hate speech into Nigeria from London, spending millions lobbying members of the US Congress, and freely using international financial networks to arm agitators on the ground. This must stop,” the president asserted.

Meanwhile, Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed group was abducted in Kenya by the Buhari regime in 2021, and illegally repatriated to Nigeria in June of the same year. He has since been in the custody of the country’s secret police, the State Security Service.