IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu
The
Media and Publicity Secretary of Indigenous People of Biafra, Comrade
Emma Powerful, has opened up on the whereabout of their leader, Nnamdi
Kanu, who disappeared some months ago, and has never been found.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has vowed to actualise a
state of Biafra, saying that not even the emergence of a Nigeria
President of Igbo extraction would stop the Biafra agitation and
eventual restoration.
The group’s Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Comrade Emma
Powerful, in this interview with Daily Sun also disclosed that IPOB is
resolute in its quest for a referendum that would lead to the
restoration of Biafra.
He said that Nigeria would witness a massive boycott of the 2019
general elections if President Muhammadu Buhari emerges the presidential
candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He also spoke on
other issues, including the whereabouts of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Here are excerpts:
IPOB has been agitating for a sovereign state of Biafra, if
an Igbo man emerges as Nigeria’s president, will that change the quest
for this your Biafra campaign?
We have crossed the point of no return. If they like let them give
an Igbo grand-mother or Ibibio woman the presidency for 10 consecutive
terms, it won’t change anything. They can pave every road in Biafraland
with gold, still nothing and we mean nothing, will ever alter our
resolve. Our mind is made up and firmly set in stone. Whatever outcome
we are confronted with after the referendum, we have to live with it.
The people of Biafra will decide in a referendum, not a few compromised
and dirty politicians negotiating our future away in the name of
restructuring Nigeria. IPOB is not like anything Africa has ever seen
before. We are uncompromising in our quest to restore Biafra and that is
the only outcome acceptable to us.
How can you achieve this without your leader, Kanu?
You conveniently forgot to mention that a detachment of Nigerian
Army stormed his home and killed him or took him away. When people say
he is nowhere to be found, it is either they are gifted with ignorance
or their faculties are not entirely intact. If the United States were to
invade Nigeria and in the process storm Aso Rock to take Buhari away,
would you say he is nowhere to be found? Sensible people will say, ask
the US because they invaded his residence. This is not complicated
philosophy but simple common sense. People should apply their thinking
faculties when evaluating the impact of the full military invasion and
massacre of 28 people that took place at the residence of our leader on
September 14, 2017.
We are a well-oiled machine that can function perfectly well with
or without our mentor and leader because the blueprint he himself laid
down is what we are following. Mazi Uche Mefor is our Deputy Leader and
with the support of the Directorate of State (DOS) of the Indigenous
People of Biafra under the able leadership of Mazi Chika Edoziem, our
modus operandi remain intact as laid down by our supreme leader, Mazi
Nnamdi Kanu. Our Deputy Leader and DOS oversee the day-to-day operations
of our global movement in the absence of our leader. We are following
the philosophy of our leader which no doubt is guiding us towards our
singular goal of Biafra restoration in the not too distant future.
What do you know about the whereabouts of your leader,
Nnamdi Kanu, can you convince Nigerians that IPOB leadership does not
know where he is?
Our ongoing efforts to compel the Fulani government of Buhari to
produce our leader are gathering momentum and will become more direct
very soon. The recent Amnesty International report on the activities of
Nigerian Army for the year 2017 made it clear that at least 12 people
were shot dead by soldiers that invaded the home of our leader in
Umuahia on the 14th of September 2017.
This is a verifiable fact. We still don’t know how they came up
with the figure 12 when they saw 28 bodies. Even in their legal defence,
the army acknowledged going to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s home to look for him.
Any right thinking society will not need further convincing that
Nigerian Army is culpable in the disappearance of our leader. Short of
picking up arms, anything and everything will be done by the global
family of IPOB to force the Buhari regime to produce our leader sooner
rather than later because they invaded his residence and killed 28 of
our people who were there with him on that fateful day of 14 September
2017.
Since that invasion, he has not been seen and evidence of gunshots
in his bedroom indicates the army shot at him. Why is the extensive
gunshot damage to his bedroom not being reported? The live footage of
the invasion abounds and was widely reported at the time. It is not the
duty of IPOB to convince the public; that responsibility lies with the
media to publish the facts of the matter and allow the people to draw
their own conclusions. It is your duty and that of every responsible
media outlet to inform the world, not just those that reside in Nigeria
regarding what truly transpired when the Nigerian Army invaded the home
of our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu with lethal force.
The most logical question to ask is: why did the army invade his
home with lethal force if the purpose was not to kill him? He was out on
bail preparing to go to court on October 17, 2017 with no outstanding
warrant against him and the next thing we saw was Nigerian soldiers
storming his home a full month before he was due in court. They killed
28 people, arrested countless others, with the whereabouts of our leader
unknown. Under such circumstance, would it not be sensible to think
that the army must have killed him?
We don’t need to convince anybody that we are unaware of our
leader’s whereabouts; all we need to do as we are doing is present the
facts of the matter as they are. Any impartial observer of the treatment
of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his parents will reach the inescapable
conclusion that the Nigerian Army must have killed or abducted him. To
suggest otherwise will mean that the army is a law unto themselves which
will confirm that Nigeria is a bona fide banana republic. After all, no
court of law in Nigeria gave the army the go ahead to invade his home.
Since Kanu disappeared, it appears the influence of your group has drastically been reduced in the South-East?
First of all, we must correct this misleading impression that our
leader simply disappeared. He is not a ghost and although he is a super
naturally gifted individual, going by his predictions, we know he is
still mortal and could not have grown wings and flown when the army
invaded his home and attacked him in his bedroom. Secondly, anybody
peddling the myth that IPOB influence has waned is only doing so to
impress his or her paymasters in Aso Rock.
The name IPOB has become a lucrative source of income for idle
minds and government informants in Ohanaeze Ndigbo looking for money and
South-east governors seeking re-election. Every man, woman and child
across South-east and South-south is IPOB. So rather than diminishing,
our influence is growing daily from strength to strength. We are still
holding rallies all over our towns and villages, but we remain conscious
of the fact that nobody can command media attention and large following
the way our leader does, so it is impossible to replicate the large
crowds that turn out to welcome him on his tours. If you are expecting
millions to march on the streets on a daily basis when we evangelize
then you will be disappointed because we have different approaches and
strategies.
In the run up to our referendum this year, the world will witness
something totally unexpected and unique. It must be stated that
Operation Python Dance II was initiated by the President General of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo and the South-east governors to
diminish the rising popularity of Nnamdi Kanu. It was borne out of
greed, envy and jealousy and nothing more. The only thing they
accomplished was to finally expose themselves for the sabotuers that
they are. Hence our resolve that Ohanaeze Ndigbo will never successfully
hold any public gathering in Biafraland unless the topic under
discussion is self-determination.
But many believe that IPOB’s silence showed that the FG has succeeded boxed your group to a corner?
I don’t know where you got this twisted impression that IPOB is
silent. Did Nigeria’s Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, and the
presidency not confirm a few weeks back that IPOB is more dangerous than
Boko Haram? How can a group that cost Nigeria millions of dollars in
media consultancy and lobbying be described as silent. There are two
ways to generate heat, one is by visible fire like firewood, charcoal
and gas, but the other is microwave. You don’t see microwave radiation;
it is silent but more deadly. We protest when it’s time, we apply some
other pressures as at when necessary.
Whatever methodology we apply, the outcome is decisively the same
always. We have rendered the name Nigeria useless before the civilized
world. Biafra is getting closer and closer with the passage of each day.
The warped narrative that IPOB has been subdued due to the abduction of
our leader is false. Our activities are going on in earnest all over
the world and preparations for our referendum is gathering momentum, so
we remain unstoppable as ever.
Kanu’s wife threatened that if her husband is not found
there will be no election in 2019; how potent could this threat be, IPOB
having failed to stop the Anambra election as threatened by your group
then?
Let me correct this impression: we did not say we will stop Anambra
elections. We said we will boycott it and we did so successfully. The
fact that INEC announced a result is to be expected. Nigeria is by its
very essence corrupt and the powers that be wouldn’t want to make public
their humiliation at the hands of IPOB that was why INEC inflated the
figures to give the exercise some respectability. The wife of our leader
is right in insisting there will be no elections because we will not
vote. They can falsify and publish fake results, that’s up to them but
we will paralyze activities in and around Biafraland on election days
come 2019.
We challenge INEC to publish true copies of result sheets from
polling booths in Anambra governorship election. Less than one per cent
of eligible voters participated in that poll and we are confident we
will achieve maximum compliance with Buhari’s name on the ticket. In
fact, we are certain that Middle Belt and Southern Kaduna will join our
election boycott due to this regime’s support for Fulani terrorists. If
what Fani-Kayode and Yoruba elders are saying carries the day, we expect
total boycott of the presidential election too in Yoruba land. Aso Rock
should worry more about other nationalities who have expressed their
desire to boycott all elections until the national question of which way
Nigeria is resolved via a referendum.
Is there any time frame for Biafra to be actualized with or without Kanu?
We hope to restore, not actualize, Biafra in the nearest possible
future with our able leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leading us to victory.
There is no timetable because only the Most High God, Chukwu Okike
Abiama, can determine when the appointed hour will be, not man. What we
know is that we are doing everything humanly possible to restore Biafra
in the shortest possible time.
IPOB has continued to insist that Kanu is in custody of
the Nigerian government which the government denied, so what effort is
being made to ensure the correct disclosure of Kanu’s whereabouts?
We are insisting and will continue to insist on this until the army
comes clean about what they did with him. They can deny all they like
but the facts speak for themselves. The Nigerian Army, and General
Buratai in particular, must tell the world who sent them to assassinate
our leader and what they were doing in his house. Therein lies the clue
to exactly know what became of him. Justice Binta Nyako’s court feigned
ignorance of this important question, but we don’t think that a panel of
justices at the Appeal Court would so easily exonerate them.
Regarding army denial that he is not in their custody, what do you
expect them to say? The culture of lying and deception has eaten so deep
into the fabric of the society in Nigeria that people are no longer
repulsed by it. Lying is a way of life in Nigeria, so the army will be
expected to try lying themselves out of the mess they are in. The 65
million dollar question remains: what were the heavily armed soldiers
and the armoured tank doing in Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s residence and who sent
them? Until the army can answer this question, every idle speculation
and denial by them is nothing more than an exercise in futility.
Source: Daily Sun
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