IPOB Leader
Hehehe………. The disappearance of the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu after the Operation Python Dance II was launched by the Army in Umuahia, has led to tension among the residents of his local community.
A secessionist leader seeking independence from Nigeria has been missing since an alleged military raid more than two weeks ago left his house in the city of Umuahia riddled with bullet holes, its windows smashed and doors hanging off hinges.
The disappearance of Nnamdi Kanu, after the raid the army says did not happen, Thre.atens to ignite separatist unrest capable of destabilizing southeastern Nigeria, a region where a million people died in a 1967-70 civil war over the short-lived Republic of Biafra.
Kingsley Kanu, 48, said he was with his older brother Nnamdi, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, at their family home on the evening of Sept. 14 when soldiers stormed in.
“They were shooting everything they saw,” he said, pointing to bullet holes in walls and windows.
“They came here just to kill everybody,” he said, adding that around 20 IPOB members were shot dead but most of the bodies were taken by soldiers.
Reuters witnesses – a reporter and TV cameraman – on Sept. 27 saw six corpses with bullet wounds in a morgue, who IPOB said were among their members.
Two resembled men in photographs held by weeping relatives who told Reuters their brothers were killed in the raid, though nobody could verify the identities of the four others.
“The military did not raid Nnamdi Kanu’s residence,” a military spokesman told reporters in the capital, Abuja. “Nnamdi Kanu is not in the custody of the military.”
The allegation and denial are the biggest flashpoint of a military deployment in the southeast that began in September.
Civil society groups and analysts say the military presence, last month’s designation of IPOB as a “Terr0rist organization”, and its leader’s disappearance could prompt the separatists to abandon their policy of non-violence.
President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim northerner, made a crackdown on secessionists the focus of his first speech in August after returning from three months of medical leave in Britain.
He then held talks with Ar.med forces chiefs who days later launched Operation Python Dance, which the military said was intended to reduce violent crime and “secessionist agitations”.
Soldiers with r!fles are present across Umuahia, capital of Abia state, in armored vans and at checkpoints where motorists are routinely questioned.
Buhari is already contending with Boko Haram’s jihadist insurgency in the northeast and seeking to maintain a ceasefire with militants in the southern oil-producing Niger Delta.
But some say the former military ruler risks exacerbating the situation, just as militant At-tacks in the Niger Delta surged last year after troops were deployed.
HEAVY-HANDED?
“The government’s heavy-handed approach will only shore up local support for a radical group that previously struggled to broaden its base,” said Malte Liewerscheidt of global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.
Ryan Cummings, director of Africa-focused risk management company Signal Risk, said the Igbo ethnic group that dominates the region, and has long spoken of being marginalized, felt targeted.
“The government has allowed insecurity to burgeon in other areas of Nigeria without similar deployments,” he said, citing At-tacks by Fulani herdsmen that have killed hundreds of people in central Nigeria over the last few years.
Tension followed the arrival of troops in the southeast.
Abia’s governor imposed a curfew in the city of Aba last month. Several days of tension between IPOB members and troops led to claims by the group that Kanu’s house had been besieged by soldiers, which the military denied.
Videos circulating on social media including footage purportedly showing troops in Abia using sticks to flog men stripped to the waist, which the army said it was investigating, have heightened anger.
“The presence of the army scared our people. People spoke about what happened during the Biafran war,” said Onyebuchi Ememanka, a special adviser to the state’s governor who is a member of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“There were no serious security challenges that would justify the deployment of troops,” said Ememanka.
He said he never saw IPOB’s members carrying weap0ns, though he added that a uniformed national guard and secret service had held parades in the last few weeks, which he called a “new dimension”.
Red, black and green paint – the Biafran flag’s colors – daubed on walls and tree trunks across Umuahia follow calls for a referendum on independence.
Kanu’s release on bail in April, after being held for nearly two years on charges of cr!minal conspiracy and treasonable offences, brought attention back to the issue.
However, talk of secession among people on the streets of Umuahia mostly hinged on whether or not they had the right to make a democratic choice about their future rather than aligning with IPOB’s belief in a need for a separate state.
Opinions tend to be divided along generation lines, with younger people born long after the war expressing an interest in a referendum while older people who remember the war or grew up hearing stories about the conflict are often wary of even discussing the subject.
However, a pronouncement earlier this year by activists in the northern state of Kaduna that Igbos, who are mainly Christian, should be evicted stirred ethnic tensions. The dispute acted as a lightning rod for frustrations against Buhari, who fought in the civil war on the government side as a young soldier.
A lack of development in the southeast for decades has cemented a belief among Igbos that they have been marginalized.
IPOB ARRESTS
Michael Ogbizi, Abia state police commissioner, said 74 IPOB members had been arrested since Sept. 12 and charged with offences including Mur.der and arson.
Many charges related to the burning down of a police station in mid-September in Aba where nine people died. Ogbizi said police had no records of IPOB members being killed.
An IPOB spokesman denied the group was involved in the fire.
Amid differing opinions about the group’s past conduct, Kanu’s disappearance has created uncertainty about its future.
“If they [the army] have killed him, let them give us the corpse,” said the IPOB leader’s brother, adding that his missing 82-year-old father and 67-year-old mother should be released if they are being held.
Liewerscheidt said if Kanu were to die at the hands of the authorities parallels could be drawn with the origins of the Boko Haram insurgency that began after the death of Mohammed Yusuf, the ISl.amist militant group’s founder, in police custody.
“This would likely transform IPOB into precisely the Terr0rist organization the military claims it already is,” he said.
Source: Reuters News Agency
However……..
Governors from the South-east have been Lamb.asted by Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer who called them cowards for proscribing the group.
South-east Governors
Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lead lawyer to Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra has said that politicians in the Southeast who took sides with the Nigerian government on the proscription of IPOB are all cowards.
According to SaharaReporters, Barrister Ejiofor, said further that politicians in South Eastern part of the country did not support Nnamdi Kanu because they are more concerned about securing their political positions. He added that the politicians prefer to do this at the expense of backing the cause championed by Nnamdi Kanu. He claimed the current crops of politicians in the region of the country would be swept out of office in the next general election in 2019.
“Southeast governors have no power to say IPOB is a Terr0rist and that is very certain. I condemned it, and they’ve withdrawn it saying they never at any point say that. What they said is a political statement to obtain favor from the federal government.” Barrister Ejiofor said.
The lawyer added, “Some of them are cowards and are saying that because they want to secure their political offices. We will mobilise youths who will come out in 2019 to sweep out all of the politicians.”
Responding to claim made by a former governor Abia, Orji Uzor Kalu who said Nnamdi Kanu had left the shores of the country after the At-tack on his house by military personnel. Barrister Ifeanyi asserted that Mr. Kalu is concerned about causing harm and unrest in the country.
The former Governor of Abia State said he spoke with one of the relatives of the missing IPOB leader who revealed to him Nnamdi Kanu is now in London. Reacting to this, the Barrister said, “Orji Uzor Kalu is a politician who I believe is looking for an avenue to get favour from the government and that is why he is saying what he is not sure of.”
“I asked if he was there with the rampaging soldiers when the premises was invaded? He was not there. Also, he said my client went to London through Malaysia. Travelers will tell you it is not possible for somebody to travel to Malaysia and from there to the United Kingdom, it is not possible. Kalu’s statement is false and targeted at causing mischief because the military knows they have my client,” The lawyer for the group said.
The lawyer affirmed that Mr. Kalu has not spoken with any relatives of Nnamdi Kanu since the At-tack took place.
“I can authoritatively confirm that no member of my client’s family spoke to him and that is certain. He does not have access to any of his relatives whether brother or sister.”
Barrister Ifeanyi, commenting on the At-tack and shooting that took place in Nnamdi Kanu’s residence, he insisted that the military is working together with the federal government and Hausa leaders. He opined that the action is targeted at alienating the Igbos and to silence demand for Biafra.
He said, “This is a Northern agenda to cleanse the entire igbos. Those who are demanding for Biafra do not wield weap0ns nor carry arms. The army is following the ploy to forcefully capture Nnamdi Kanu and silence his supporters. There are other people like the herdsmen who walk about with AK-47s, but the government has not deployed the military against them.”
Convinced that Nnamdi Kanu is in the custody of the military, Barrister Ejiofor demanded his client be released whether he is dead or alive.
“The At-tack was properly mapped because they came to inspect the house two days before they struck. They shot at everyone and everything in the premises including dogs and cars. They entered the bedroom, and bullet holes can be seen all over the walls. I’m very sure they are with him, and I have petitioned the military to ensure they produce him dead or alive. He is a prince, and if he is dead, they should release his body for a befitting burial. I have said and still insisting that the military must produce him on the next adjourned court date.”
Nnamdi Kanu has been missing with whereabout unknown since the At-tack on his house by the Nigeria military on September 14. However, the military has denied invading the home of the IPOB leader and insisting they don’t have him custody.
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