IPOB Threatens That Anambra Election Won’t Hold If Nnamdi Kanu Isn’t Released
The Indigenous People of Biafra has announced a compulsory one week sit-at-home protest in the South-East which starts from November 5, a day before the governorship election in Anambra State.
IPOB’s Media and Public Secretary, Emma Powerful, in a statement on Saturday in Awka, the Anambra state, stated that the protest was targeted at triumphing on the Federal Government to free its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
The group promised that the protest would go on if Kanu was not released before 4th of November.
Kanu is currently facing trial on a seven-count amended charge which centers on treason and terrorism.
The Federal Government had blamed him for the murder of Dr. Chike Akunyili, husband to the former Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, late Prof. Dora Akunyili.
Similarly, Kanu was accused of being responsible for the murder of a former presidential aide, Ahmad Gulak, and over 184 others in the South-East.
The 24-member committee consists of members from the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Information, the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services, the National Intelligence Agency and the Defence Intelligence Agency.
Kano was arraigned on October 21. Journalists were not granted access to enter the court to cover the proceedings. The case was however adjourned till November 10 for further hearing.
But IPOB in a statement on Saturday requested that the Federal Government release Kanu from custody before November 4, while threatening to ensure and impose a one-week sit-at-home across the South East, which might ruin the November 6 governorship election in Anambra.
The statement partly read, “Following the adjournment of our great leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s court case to November 10, 2021, by the Federal High Court Abuja, we, the great movement and family of the Indigenous People of Biafra, wish to inform Biafrans, friends of Biafra and lovers of freedom that IPOB will lock down Biafraland from November 5 to November 10 except Sunday, November 7th, a day our people worship the almighty God, if the Nigerian Government fails to release our leader unconditionally before 4th of November 4, 2021.”
“We have taken time to analyse what transpired on October 21 when our leader was arraigned and discovered that the Federal Government is not sincere and only wants to humiliate him and keep him perpetually in DSS custody to rot there.
“We all saw how lawyers, journalists, Igbo delegates, respected traditional rulers and other people who came from all around the world to witness his court case were restricted and denied access into the court premises by security agents who kept them outside under the scorching sun”.
