Mary Onyia
In a trending video, released on April 22, the separatist group in the southeast region of Nigeria has demanded for the immediate release of their leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) .
The group in a video clip shot in an unknown forest with masks and brandishing guns threatened to destabilize the South East region until Kanu was released from prison where he has been held for almost a year.
Speaking through its unidentified spokesman the group vowed that political elections would not hold in the southeast until their prayers are answered.
According to them, “anybody that attempts any election matter will die”
“We the unknown gunmen in Biafraland have come to make our position known to the public. We are here to protect our fatherland by all means. We don’t have any sponsor. And we are not planning to have,” a gunman said.
“We are not under the command of Simon Ekpa, DOS or Uwazuruike. Any government giving any of these people money is wasting their time. Only the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu can calm us down. Monday sit-at-home is sacrosanct. Nothing can stop it apart from the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“There shall be no election, and anybody that attempts any election matter will die.”
The group claimed that they had no sponsors and was not affiliated to Simon Ekpa of IPOB nor Ralph Uwazuike of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).
It will be recalled that the separatist group have been widely alleged to have been responsible for the spate of violence that had engulfed the southeast region in recent times; leading to the killings of uniformed personnel and kidnap of some prominent persons, burning of police stations and homes of perceived enemies.
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Kanu is currently incarcerated and on trial by the Nigerian government for leading a secessionist movement against the state and for allegedly orchestrating the killing of over 60 persons plus other charges..
The court ordered Mr Kanu’s arrest in March 2019 after adjudging him to have jumped bail.
The arrest order came months after Mr Kanu fled the country in the wake of the invasion of his home by the military in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State, in September 2017.
Mr Kanu’s disappearance stalled his trial which he was jointly undergoing along with his co-defendants. With the development, the judge, on March 28, 2018, severed his trial from that of other co-defendants to stop further delay in the others’ case.
Mr Kanu, a citizen of both Nigerian and Britain, was believed to have moved to Israel and later to the United Kingdom after leaving Nigeria
Without any public hint of the government trailing him, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, surprisingly announced in June 2021, that the secessionist had been “intercepted” and brought back to Nigeria.
While Mr Malami kept mum on where Mr Kanu was arrested and the circumstances of his repatriation to Nigeria, the IPOB leader’s family members and lawyers raged at what they said was his abduction from Kenya.
The government, after bringing the IPOB leader back to Nigeria, amended the existing treasonable felony charges against him to add terrorism allegations raising the number of counts to 15.
Mr Kanu pleaded not guilty to the charges during his re-arraignment. He also filed a preliminary application challenging the validity of the charges and a separate action challenging what he said was his illegal repatriation by the federal government. The IPOB leader has a pending N50billion action against the alleged illegal repatriation, but ruling has yet to be delivered on it.