After a lull in its protest marches against the continued detention of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is poised to reignite the wave of protests in the South-east and parts of South-south zones.
Some IPOB’s Head of Media and Publicity, Emma Powerful, dropped the hint in a statement at the weekend, saying the group had endured enough waiting for the federal government to release Kanu, who has been in detention since October 14, 2015, following his arrest and ongoing trial.
“We have endured, we will start the protest that will bring the government to its knees,” he said, adding that the protest was earlier called off “not out of cowardice and fear but to show maturity and professionalism in what we are doing and to allow federal government to release our leader, Kanu unconditionally.”
The IPOB spokesman explained that in observing a break in its protests, the group gave the federal government an opportunity to take a decision and “release the man who did not commit any crime.”
Alluding to the often violent crackdown by security agencies during IPOB protests, Powerful said: “We know they will kill us as they used to do before now but in the end we will be free.” He called on, “Biafrans to be ready for what is to come.”
Citing the famous quotation of Martin Luther King Jr that ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’, the IPOB media and publicity head noted that the organisation was pleased with the pro-Biafra protests going on around the world which is still in progress.
He therefore stated that “we in Biafraland will not stop until our leader is released unconditionally.”
The spokesman said it was regrettable that those who advised President Muhammadu Buhari do not want freedom for the IPOB leader, adding that they had continued to make it difficult for the president to do the right thing by releasing Kanu.
He added that the same sycophants in his administration were also waiting to laugh over his downfall.
Meanwhile, IPOB has vehemently condemned the arrest and detention of 76 villagers of Ugwuneshi community in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State following a clash with Fulani herdsmen accused of destroying crops and farmland with their cattle.
The farmers are being held in prison custody at the federal prisons in Afara, Umuahia, after they were denied bail when they were arraigned before a magistrate court last week.
But IPOB condemned in strong terms the Nigeria Army and Nigeria Police Zone 9 for saying they were not aware of the farmers by “men in military uniform” who took them to Umuahia and then dumped them in prison.
IPOB spokesman said it was appalling that the army would deny knowledge of the “fake soldiers, fake police and their collaboration with Fulani herdsmen in ravaging, killing, maiming and raping women and girls of Awgu community in Enugu State.”
He raised this poser: “If they are fake soldiers as claimed, who handed them (farmers) over to fake police, who prepared the fake charges against them and transferred them to fake Zone 9 in Umuahia and who took them to fake magistrate court, who remanded them in fake prison in Umuahia?”
