IPOB challenges Soludo, declares Nnamdi Kanu’s release key to ending South-East insecurity
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has countered Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s claim that releasing its detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu, may not resolve insecurity in the South-East region.
In a statement on Monday, IPOB spokesman Emma Powerful maintained that Kanu’s release would completely end insecurity in the region.
Soludo had expressed doubts during a press briefing on December 17 at the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia, stating that criminals exploiting the Biafran struggle were responsible for much of the violence in the region, independent of Kanu’s influence.
Responding, IPOB accused Soludo of siding with politicians opposed to Kanu’s release, calling the governor’s stance illogical and contradictory to his previous calls for Kanu’s freedom.
The statement read, “It has come to the attention of the noble family of the IPOB that His Excellency, Governor Chukwuma Soludo, recently made a public utterance to the effect that the release of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu ‘may not’ end insecurity in the South-East.
“With this statement, the governor appears to be pitching his tent firmly with those politicians who are against the release of our leader, which not only defies logic given the governor’s own previous antecedents in calling for his release but is equally counterintuitive.
“If we are led to believe, as the governor inferred, that those allegedly perpetuating insecurity in our blessed land are doing so on the purport that they want Kanu released, would it not make sense, therefore to seek his release and, in so doing, call the bluff of these misguided individuals or at very least deny them any cover or legitimacy.
“That is why the statement made by Governor Soludo can be misread and misunderstood as conflicting with common sense. Suppose criminals are hiding under the name of Kanu and IPOB to commit any offence. In that case, common sense dictates that if he is released, nobody would hide under his name or that of IPOB to commit any crime or do anything untoward.
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“Any criminal or criminals hiding under his name will be flushed out or be exposed, and those operating in their own name will be driven out of our land. We thought that this approach was in line with the much-touted non-kinetic initiative championed by the governor himself.
“Why then did the governor deviate and start sounding like a propagandist or spokesman of the Nigerian Army, that institution that is always looking for justification to kill or incarcerate yet more innocent Igbo young men and women?
“We must ask, is the governor unaware of the pathological hatred some Nigerian security agencies have towards the people of Biafra, especially those exercising their constitutional right to self-determination.”
According to the group, Soludo lived in Abuja at the peak of the killer herdsmen’s reign of terror in Igboland and the entire South-East and was unable to grasp the magnitude of the problem at that time.
The IPOB said if there is any other ulterior motive behind the South-East governors’ reluctance to publicly seek Kanu’s release in accordance with their public pledge, the South-East Governors Forum should be brave enough to tell the public.
“The shame the Igbo race had to endure and what it took IPOB through ESN to bring it to an end. If the same person that brought to an end the full-scale invasion, slaughter and humiliation of the Igbo race at the hands of these killer herdsmen from the Sahel that were rampaging unchecked through our forests, farmlands and villages a few years back, the same Kanu will surely end insecurity in the South-East and beyond.
“We boldly reiterate the commitment our leader made during one of his court appearances. This is a challenge to those who doubt the potency of our worldwide movement: If Kanu is released and insecurity does not cease in its entirety within two weeks, IPOB shall cease to exist.
“This is how bold and confident we are in demonstrating our utter repudiation of anything that may bring or cause hardship to the people of Biafra,” the statement added.
