Police can’t stop our protest – IPOB members
On Monday, the 5th of July 2021, the Police Command in Abia State had revealed plans by some individuals and groups of persons to stage protests in the State.
In a release by its Public Relations Officer, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, the Police Command advised intending protesters to desist or postpone such exercise forth-with.
According to the Police Command, “this has become necessary as hoodlums or miscreants may hijack the process to unleash mayhem on the lives and property of innocent citizens.”
It disclosed that “the security operatives in the Abia State had been placed on red alert as the Command will not tolerate any act capable of truncating the peace in the state”.
However, an investigation conducted on Wednesday, revealed that the Abia police’s claim came on the heels of the vows by some die-hard members and supporters of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu to stage protest in the southeastern zone, especially Abia.
Nnamdi Kanu who is an indigene of Isiama Afaraukwu Ibeku in Abia was recently rearrested and repatriated from Kenya to Nigeria to continue treasonable felony charges preferred against by the Nigeria government
Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, who confirmed the development, had said the IPOB leader was arrested by a combined team of Nigerian and foreign security agents in a coordinated interception.
Against this backdrop, he was dragged before Justice Binta Nyako of an Abuja Federal High Court for the continuation of his trial.
Justice Nyako, after listening to Kanu and the government, remanded him in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS.
Recall that Kanu had a few years ago jumped bail and escaped out of the country after Nigeria soldiers invaded his Afaraukwu country home in 2017.
Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which agitates for a separate state for ethnic Igbos in southeast Nigeria, has been labeled a terrorist organization by the Nigerian government.
In an interview with DAILY POST against the backdrops of the police’s claim on the planned protest in Abia, Nwabueze Omenihu, a die-hard member of the Kanu’s pro-Biafra group (IPOB), berated the security agency for infringing on the rights of the people as guaranteed by the constitution and international law.
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Omenihu said that the security agency can only succeed in unleashing its brutalities on them but can never kill the quest for self-determination, insisting that the pro-Biafra group is undeterred in marching to condemn the alleged abduction of Nnamdi Kanu.
According to the IPOB faithful, their claim is not surprising to us. After all, is there anything wrong for people to exercise their right in frowning at the illegitimate action of the current government?
“Let me tell you, thousands of policemen and soldiers, coupled with their evil antics and propaganda, as well as classification of IPOB as a terror organization cannot jeopardize our struggle for succession. The ill-treatment currently being meted to our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the Nigeria government under the headship of Major General Muhammadu Buhari is unacceptable.
“We are marching for justice and fairness. You are a living witness that IPOB is nonviolent, and only that we want to go separate ways due to the long-aged marginalization of our people by the Fulani caliphate at the helm of affairs of this nation since the independence of this zoo called Nigeria; Fulanis in Nigeria government at the Aso rock are dishing all manner of wickedness and propaganda against IPOB and our leader”.
Another member of Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB, Edward Nkume dismissed the claim by the Police that the group was intending to unleash havoc under the guise of the planned protest.
He noted that the law of the land confers on people the right for expression against some unlawful activities of government, urging the security agents whom he stated, had turned to murderous squads, to respect the fundamental rights of the people seeking for separation.
Nkume vowed that the continued use of police forces in spreading false claims against IPOB and its members cannot stop their clamor for justice.
He further stated that IPOB cannot be intimidated into abandoning its separatist course as the Nigeria polity has failed to provide a good and conducive living for her inhabitants.
Baring his mind on the Police’s claim, Mazi Nwokeukwu David, an IPOB member based in Umuahia, faulted the police’s claim which he opined, was aimed at truncating the collective march by the pro-Biafra agitators to demand for fair treatment for its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
He said, “There are lots of questions begging for answers pertaining to the present predicament of the IPOB leader, who was unjustly detained by the Buhari-led Fulani government. Was he truly repatriated or kidnapped?.
“As far as I’m concerned, false claims by police or other security agencies cannot deter us from seeking our rights. I am not surprised by the claim, it is only in Nigeria you can see the rights of the masses not being respected. We demand from the government and her security agencies to toe the path of law as anything short of that will be confronted squarely and in a peaceful manner. We are tired of this zoo called Nigeria”.
