|SundayPunch| 18th, September 2017|
The founder of the Indigenous People of
Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, and top leaders of his group have gone into hiding
following Friday’s declaration by the Nigerian Army that IPOB and other
Pro-Biafran groups were terrorist organizations.
Investigations by SUNDAY PUNCH on
Saturday revealed that Kanu and his top lieutenants had ‘disappeared’ from his
country home in Afaraukwu near Umuahia and other places he frequently visited.
His father, Eze Israel Kanu, is the
traditional ruler of the town.
Some IPOB members, who spoke on condition of
anonymity explained that Kanu and others were advised to go underground
following the declaration by the Army and the decision of the South-East
governors to proscribe activities of pro-Biafra agitators in the region.
An IPOB member said, “We have to apply wisdom
to whatever we are doing. We have realized that there is a grand conspiracy
against Kanu and other top leaders of our group.
“Just imagine barely few hours after the
Nigerian military declared members of IPOB and other pro-Biafran groups as
terrorists, our own governors came up with their own outright ban of our
activities.
“This definitely will give the soldiers and
other security agencies the opportunity to arrest our leader and mount a deadly
clampdown on all IPOB members. So, it is better to operate from a hideout for
now.”
I can’t disclose my brother’s location —
Kanu’s brother
When contacted on phone on Saturday, Kanu’s
younger brother simply identified as Fine Boy, refused to tell SUNDAY
PUNCH where his brother was, adding that only the IPOB leader could
disclose his hiding place.
He said, “Only my brother can tell Nigerians
where he is, I can’t. I don’t know why the Army should call IPOB a terrorist
organization, it is out of their desperation to arrest Nnamdi and frustrate the
Biafran struggle. We have petitioned the United Nations and the European
Union.
“The world knows that IPOB is a non-violent
organization, we don’t carry arms, we don’t kill, and we believe violence can
never solve any problem.
“Nnamdi will soon disclose his current
location and IPOB will also react to the proscription of the group by the
South-East governors’ forum.”
Security agencies comb South-East for Kanu,
others
SUNDAY PUNCH investigations on Saturday
also showed that security agencies were combing the South-East region in search
of Kanu.
Findings by one of our correspondents in
Abuja showed that the security agencies had been directed to arrest Kanu and
other leaders of his group.
The directive to arrest the IPOB leaders was
said to have been communicated to the leaders of the security agencies deployed
in the region.
The security agencies that were given the
directive, according to investigations, include the military, the police and
the Department of State Services.
It was gathered that the government felt that
it could be dangerous to leave Kanu a free man till the next adjourned date
when his case would come up at an Abuja Federal High Court.
His case is said to be coming up later in
October.
A top security source said, “We are seriously
looking for him. He has a lot of things to explain to the government concerning
his statements, actions, and activities.
“We can’t sit by and allow the security
situation in the country to be compromised to the extent that an individual
will be challenging the Federal Government.
“Government has to do something about an
individual that is recruiting young people, giving them uniforms, arming them
and referring to them as a secret service.
“We have been seizing arms and ammunition at
the ports; we also need to know what they were meant for.
“This is someone who unilaterally said there
would be no election in Anambra State and some people want us to allow him to
continue with his activities? No, we need to grow above our ethnic and
tribal sentiments.”
South-East govs disloyal — IPOB
IPOB on Saturday night condemned the
South East Governor’s Forum over its proscription of IPOB’s activities. Its
media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, said the speed with which the
governors announced the proscription of IPOB activities showed that the
governors were disloyal.
IPOB said, “We want to find out how the
governors who do not know the foundations of IPOB, would make such a statement
when they know that IPOB had staged 297 peaceful protests and rallies both at
home and in Diaspora without a single record of violence or crime.
“With the record on ground, IPOB under Mazi
Nnamdi Kanu, is one of the most peaceful organized freedom fighting group in the
world today. It is dangerous that the governors who are the chief
security officers of their respective states in the zone would decide to hand
over their people to the enemies who were out to kill, maim and destroy because
of their selfish reasons. We are also aware that late Chief Emeka
Odumegwu Ojukwu and General Philip Effiong protected their people during the
first pogrom and ethnic cleansing from 1966’to 1970.
“These governors and their collaborators are
in the forefront to eliminate our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and other peaceful
members of IPOB. It is on record that IPOB activities are peaceful since the
inception and nobody can prove where and how IPOB activities became violent
overnight.
“The soldiers brought in to eliminate or
murder our leader and IPOB members, including the innocent civilians across
Biafra land, are still going from house to house picking anyone suspected to be
IPOB or seen with any Biafra insignia. IPOB under Kanu must remain a nonviolent
group in the pursuit of Biafra freedom, despite the high-handedness meted
against IPOB members and our leader.”
Enforcement of ban will cause bloodshed, says
MASSOB
The Movement for the Actualisation of the
Sovereign State of Biafra, on Saturday, said the South-East Governors Forum has
no powers to proscribe the activities of pro-Biafra groups in the zone.
It warned that any attempt by the governors
to enforce the proscription will lead to loss of lives.
MASSOB said the decision taken by the
governors cannot stand.
National Director of Information, MASSOB,
Samuel Edeson, in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH in Enugu, described
the pro-Biafra groups as independent associations of people whose rights to
self-determination are backed by the United Nation’s Charter.
Edeson argued that the governors can only
enforce the proscription after amending the laws of South-East states to
criminalize self-determination.
According to him, “The governors said they
will enforce the proscription, the only way they can do that is by using the
shoot-on-sight approach which was started by the Buhari administration. In that
case people will die.
“The fact is that MASSOB was never registered
under the Nigerian government; neither did we registered with the Corporate
Affairs Commission.
“We are an independent organization, we are
freedom fighters — there is nowhere in the world where a self-determination
group is proscribed.
“It (proscription) cannot stand; nobody can
drive us away from our father’s land.”
Ohanaeze Ndigbo also faulted Nigeria army’s
declaration of IPOB as a terrorist organization. Ohanaeze said, “IPOB is not a
terrorist organization going by extant national and international laws,
especially the terrorist prevention Act 2011, as amended in 2015.”
taken from http://saharareporters.com
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