Society Gists

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.”