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Tag: Biafra

  • Biafra: Nnamdi Kanu reacts to court judgement ordering his rearrest

    The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has alleged that the bail Justice Binta Nyako granted him in 2017 was to set him up for assassination.

    He made the allegation on his Twitter handle on Saturday in his series of reactions to the recent revocation of his bail and order for his arrest by Justice Nyako.

    The IPOB leader said that the judge who is presiding over his case at the Federal High Court Abuja on realising that the ploy with the Nigerian government to have him killed failed now decided to revoke his bail.

    Kanu tweeted, “It’s now obvious Justice Binta Nyako only agreed to grant me bail as part of an elaborate ploy with the Nigerian govt to set me up for assassination. Her failure to investigate the military invasion of my home is clear confirmation that she is angry I survived the attack.”

    Kanu, who is facing trial alongside other Biafran activists for alleged treason, had disappeared from public space months after his bail only to reappear in Israel after one year and later moved to the UK.

    He has also vowed to challenge the court order directing his arrest in the United Kingdom in a broadcast on Radio Biafra earlier on Saturday.

  • Biafra: Ohanaeze Ndigbo speaks on fresh court order to arrest Nnamdi Kanu

    The Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Friday, warned of dire consequences over the bench warrant issued against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, by a Federal High Court in Abuja.

    Justice Binta Nyako issued the order following Kanu’s continuous absence from court.

    But reacting through a statement signed by Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, President General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide and Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, Secretary General, the apex Igbo organization said such order would spell doom.

    The Ohanaeze said it the arrest order with “rude Shock and disbelief, and weighing the implications, such action may destabilize the fragile peace that has returned to Southern Nigeria, especially Southeast and South/South after the ugly but sad experience(s) witnessed during his first arrest, and subsequently the untimely death of innocent Igbo Youths and women that characterized his detention.”

    They, however, urged the IPOB to “resist any temptation of allowing Nnamdi Kanu to return to Nigeria, as the healing process of those slaughtered during the first arrest and python Dance has not been completed.

    “There’s no need to escalate the tension already established in the Southeast over the menace of herdsmen ravaging some parts of igbo land; there’s no need to compound our loss by allowing Nnamdi Kanu return now until Igbo Christian and Traditional leaders intervene in the process.

    “We are pleading With President Buhari as the father of the Nation to grant Presidential Pardon to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, as a way to show compassion to Ndigbo. We are aware of the Presidential release of over 500 inmates of suspected Boko Haram detainees in Kano Prisons.

    “Presidential Pardon to all Biafra agitators, including Nnamdi Kanu will save a lot of Billions of Naira that would’ve been used for peacekeeping, in the imminent collapse of peace and civil disturbances that will follow immediately if he’s re-arrested.

    “Such billions can be used on alternative Road Projects in southeast, because Aba, Port Harcourt, Asaba, Abakiliki, Enugu, Onitsha, Nnewi and Owerri may become ungovernable as we witnessed during the last arrest of Nnamdi Kanu.”

    They further stated that “there’s better time re-unite every part Nigeria than now; Carrot and Stick method of late President Yar’adua should be adopted in handling the delicate case of Nnamdi Kanu; his re-arrest order is an ill wind that will blow no one no any good.”

  • Biafra: Court revokes Nnamdi Kanu’s bail, orders arrest

    An Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has revoked the bail earlier granted to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

    The court presided over by a judge, Binta Nyako, gave the order on Thursday and directed that a bench warrant should be issued for Mr Kanu’s arrest.

    The court said it has given the order because Mr Kanu had failed to appear in court after his bail was granted in April 2017.

    The court ruled that the trial must continue and directed that a fresh date for the continuation should be given by parties so that the matter will continue in Mr Kanu’s absence.

    The case was adjourned till June 18.

    Mr Kanu, a separatist leader calling for an independent Biafran country, jumped bail when he escaped out of the country.

    He has since appeared in several videos online criticising Nigerian leaders and government.

    Details later…

  • Biafra: I can’t continue to stand as surety for Nnamdi Kanu, Abaribe tells court

    Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe has told the Court of Appeal in Abuja that his standing surety for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, is illegal.

    He therefore urged the court to relieve him of standing as as surety for the embattled IPOB leader.

    Abaribe also asked the court to set aside the November 14, 2018 order of the Federal High Court in Abuja which gave him and two others a two-month ultimatum to, each pay N100m bond for their inability to produce the Biafran activist.

    Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja, had in her November 14, 2018 ruling, held that Abaribe and the two other sureties owed the court the duty of producing Kanu, whose absence since 2017 has halted his trial on charges of treasonable felony.

    But the senator, through his lawyer, Mr Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN), had on January 3, 2018, filed an amended seven grounds notice of appeal and a brief of argument to challenge the Federal High Court’s decisions.

    Relying on sections 55, 165(3), 167(3) and 488 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, and other provisions of the constitution, Ume argued that a public officer such as a senator was legally exempted from standing surety for a suspect.

    He blamed the Federal High Court for making a senator to be part of the sureties Kanu must present in April 2017.

    Ume said, “The honourable trial court failed and or refused to take judicial notice” of the relevant provisions of the ACJA and the Nigerian constitution.

    “Thus the honourable trial court had not done the needful under the law, otherwise it would have found that by law, the appellant (a senator) is legally exempted, ab initio from giving security for the good conduct or behaviour of a suspect.

    “It is trite law that where a valid Act or law clearly states something, it is not within the powers of the court to go contrary to it.

    “We therefore can see that the involvement of Senator Abaribe in the whole bail and surety quagmire was invalid, ab initio.”

    Kanu slipped out of Nigeria after soldiers deployed under the Operation ‘Python Dance II’ in the South-East to quell agitation for a Biafra republic, invaded his home in Afara-Ukwu, Umuahia, Abia in September 2017.

    Abaribe and two others had stood as sureties for Kanu before he was granted bail by the Federal High Court in Abuja on April 25, 2017.

    They are now grappling with the burden to produce him to enable his trial to continue.

    The three sureties’ inability to produce Kanu, made the judge, Justice Binta Nyako, to order them on November 14, 2018, to each pay into the court’s account the N100m bond within two months.

    The two-month ultimatum lapses on January 14.

    But before the ultimatum expires, Abaribe and the two other sureties – Emmanuel Shallom-Ben and Tochukwu Uchendu – had filed separate appeals against the November 14, 2018 order.

    Abaribe canvassed among other grounds of appeal that the Federal High Court on its own made “an order of interim forfeiture without considering or evaluating” all the applications filed before it by the sureties.

    He added that the trial court acted without jurisdiction when it suo moto (on its own) made an interlocutory order that in substance rendered nugatory the core issue in the substantive matter.

    Meanwhile, the Federal High Court has fixed March 28 for the sureties to return for hearing.

  • IPOB: Umahi declares support for ‘Operation Python Dance,’ says Ebonyi not part of Biafra

    Ebonyi state Governor, Engr. David Umahi, on Sunday said Ebonyi state was not part of the states that formed the “Sovereign States of Biafra,” which had been proclaimed by the Indigenous People of Biafra.

    Umahi, who also serves as Chairman of the South East

    Governors’ Forum, however said some of the agitations of IPOB members were genuine, except that the approach used in actualising their objectives were bad.

    Umahi also raised the alarm of an alleged threat of kidnap on the five governors of the zone by the group and added that the fresh threat was received via text messages, sent to his wife.

    He spoke on Sunday at the Nkwegu Military Cantonment in Abakaliki, the state capital, during the inauguration of Operation Python Dance (Egwu Eke) phase III, by the Nigerian Army.

    He said, “The GOC, you are coming at a time we had our brothers and sisters of IPOB sending text messages that, there will be no elections and insulting the leaders, particularly the South-East governors.

    Just few days back, they sent text message to my wife that the five governors of the South-East would be kidnapped and that their security would be overpowered and that after ransoms were paid, they would kill them and kill themselves.

    “That is laughable; although as a leader in the zone, I must say that some of their complaints are genuine; but the approach is very bad. That is why the leaders of south east are not in support of their approach.”

    “So, we are not against them, but their approach. And as the Chief Security of the state, I do not welcome them; Ebonyi state is not part of Biafra, we are a sovereign state, and we don’t want to be colonised again, as we are a state demanding better treatment in the affairs of our nation.”

  • Court finally fixes date to hear suit seeking Biafra Republic

    A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, has fixed February 25, 2019, for the hearing of a suit seeking the actualisation of a sovereign state of Biafra.

    The suit originally began in the Owerri division of the court before it was transferred to Abuja at the instance of the Federal Government.

    The suit was filed by the Incorporated Trustees of Bilie Human Rights Initiative, representing the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) against the Federal Government of Nigeria and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

    Specifically, the plaintiff wants an actualisation of the sovereign state of Biafra through legal means.

    However, in its counter affidavit to the preliminary objection filed by the Federal Government, the plaintiff argued: “If Biafra is carved out of the present Nigeria today as a sovereign and independent nation, Nigeria has nothing to lose as it will still remain great and the giant of Africa.

    “It would have abundant peace, progress, unity, strong economy, political, religious and cultural harmony that shall be without comparison within the African sub-region and beyond.”

    Innocent Amadi, President of Billie Human Rights Initiative, who deposed to the 13- paragraph counter affidavit, averred that “in order to terminate the present suit by all means, the Federal Government took undue advantage of the rift with Nnamdi Kanu’s faction of IPOB in filling an ex-parte application at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

    The Billie Human Rights Initiative said Federal Government had used the court, presided over by the then Acting Chief Judge, Justice Abdul Karafati, to “horridly secure an ex-parte order to kill permanently our struggle for self-determination and our genuine and lawful efforts to actualise the sovereign State of Biafra through legal means.”

    Justice Babatunde Quadri, who presided over the matter, fixed February 25, 2019, for the hearing of the suit.

    The IPOB, led by Kanu, is seeking secession from Nigeria. The group has since been proscribed by the Nigerian Government.

  • No amount of intimidation will stop Biafra – IPOB

    The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has restated commitment towards restoring Biafra sovereignty through peaceful and democratic process, stressing it would not be deterred by confrontations with security agents.

    The group also dismissed as “untrue” reports that its members on a campaign march of “no elections” next year in southeastern states on Friday, attacked and killed a police officer in Nnewi. It said those allegedly arrested by the police, following the incident, could be poor innocent citizens, as no member of the group was missing from the peaceful protest.

    Reports had it that the peaceful protest turned bloody and allegedly led to the death of four persons, following a clash between the protesting group and police, while attempting to gain entry into Nnewi Main Market.

    However, in a statement made available to The Guardian, yesterday, by the Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, IPOB said it has never indulged in violence or crime, no matter the level of provocation from security agents and Nigerian government.

    The statement read: “It is shocking and baffling that people in government have decided to use some media houses to propagate false information and lies against IPOB activities, not minding that we have remained peaceful and civil in every of our outing and conduct, especially the recent ‘no election’ evangelism that happened in Nnewi, Anambra State.

    What happened, yesterday, at Nnewi, Anambra State is another example of a lawless police organisation intent on causing trouble.”It explained that the officer in question was actually hiding inside a gutter and had resurfaced afterwards.

    IPOB noted: “After hiding a policeman in the sewer, Anambra police authority had the temerity to lie. It was the police that raced to the venue of a peaceful march uninvited, and as usual, started shooting and attacking IPOB family members, who were on a peaceful rally in commemoration of our leader’s reappearance in Jerusalem.”

  • Biafra: Presidency reacts to Nnamdi Kanu’s 'coming with hell' threats

    The Presidency on Tuesday said there was no cause for alarm over the recent threat by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, that he would return to the country “with hell.”
     
    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in a statement made available to journalists.
     
    Shehu said the Presidency viewed the threat as a mere distraction.
     
    He said Nigerians had nothing to fear because the present administration was ready to defend the nation’s territory against any threat.
     
    He added that the administration is in touch with other friendly nations and has been assured of their commitment to the sovereignty of the nation.
     
    The statement read, “The Presidency wishes to restate that Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari is strong enough to defend its territory against any threat, assuring all Nigerians that there is no reason to worry about the hollow outburst by Nnamdi Kanu, the disputed leader of IPOB on returning to the country ‘with hell.’
     
    “Instead, we see the re-enactment of his bizarre, episodic threat as a mere distraction which will not be allowed to detract from the existing cordial relationships between Nigeria and other countries.
     
    “The Buhari administration is in constant touch with other friendly nations and has the best assurances that they would continue to reciprocate the respect Nigeria has for the sovereignty of their nations.
     
    “Nigerians have nothing to fear from this.”

  • Nnamdi Kanu resurfaced to make more money for himself not Biafra – MASSOB founder

    The Founder/Leader of Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Ralph Uwazuruike, has said that the leader of Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, resurfaced from his self imposed exile to take advantage of the election season to enrich himself the more.
    The MASSOB leader insisted that Kanu does not actually work for Biafra’s independence, but for his own “selfish interest.”
    He also advised Ndigbo to disregard Kanu’s Sunday broadcast in which he declared “no election/referendum;” adding that Kanu does not have the powers or the right to stop the Igbo people from participating in the 2019 general elections.
    “Last time, he carried a campaign that there wouldn’t be election in Anambra State and what eventually happened in the end?
    “Today, he has started again. He is back again after several months, because election is just by the corner, so as to deceive the people and mop up money for himself as the IPOB leader and in the name of fighting for the realisation of Biafra independence.”
    Uwazuruike who also doubles as the founder of Biafra Independent Movement, spoke on Monday in Owerri, Imo State.
    He contended that he was the Number One person and the protagonist in the agitation and struggle for the realisation of Biafra Republic.
    He further said that Kanu was only deceiving the people, adding that the dummy of no election, sit-at-home order, referendum and no census that Kanu was selling today was originally introduced by him for the realisation of the struggle.
    “In 2004, we in MASSOB came up with dummy of no election, sit-at-home order, referendum and no census, which Kanu is selling today in the Southeast as strategies towards gaining Biafra independence.
    “However, when I was later called by late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu and other higher authorities that the strategies would have adverse effect on Ndigbo, we decided to drop them.
    “Today, Kanu is using the same dummy to cause confusion in the Biafran areas, not considering their adverse effects.”
    “For instance, the issue of no election is a constitutional matter. Kanu does not have the powers to say that election can never take place in the Southeast.
    “The truth is that in the Southeast, we have only five states and what a presidential candidate, for example, only needs to win his or her election is two-thirds majority vote.
    “If the five states out of the 36 states, including the FCT, do not vote and 31 states vote, two-thirds majority would still be gotten.
    “The president then has the powers to appoint anybody to be in charge of the other five states who do not vote. This is, therefore, politically detrimental to Ndigbo.”
    On referendum, Uwazuruike noted that it was not in the Nigerian constitution, adding that for it to be enshrined in the constitution, it must get the approval of the National Assembly and the Presidency.
    “These are things some Igbo people do not know. Kanu has started his campaign to cause more confusion for our people, which I call campaign of calumny and deceit.
    “The emergence of Kanu in 2009, 10 years after I had started the struggle, was stage-managed by the government to put confusion among the leaders and the people, strictly aimed at non-realisation of the republic.
    “What Kanu suffered recently in the hands of soldiers is just one-twentieth of what I have suffered in the course of this struggle.
    “A freedom fighter is always known for donating his life to the cause of the struggle. That he ran away after a while and reappeared during the electioneering period is deceitful.
    “He is being used to destabilise Ndigbo towards gaining the independence of Biafra.”
    Uwazuruike, nevertheless, expresses worries about the lives of innocent people recently killed in the last “Operation Python Dance” and in what he called “the deceitful way of agitating for Biafra sovereignty.”

  • Biafra: Group begs Buhari to pardon Kanu, IPOB

    Following reports on Friday claiming that Nnamdi Kanu was sighted in far away Israel, the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide led by Mr Okechukwu Isiguzoron has expressed happiness over news of the sighting.
    A statement by the Deputy President General of the group, Comrade Obinna Achionye also urged the Federal Government to grant Kanu pardon to enable him return home.
    “We Urge President Buhari to grant him Presidential pardon and squash all legal proceedings against in the spirit of National reconciliation and forgiveness”, said the group.
    Ohaneze youths noted that if the Federal government can release boko haram detainees in Kano and planning to give Amnesty to Boko Haram, the same gesture should be extended to IPOB and Mr Kanu.
    “They should reverse the tag of IPOB as a terrorist organization and allow peace to reign”
    The group also urged IPOB followers not to go to the street now in the spirit of jubilation in other not to create political tension in the South East and South/south.
    “We Urge the South East Governors to close ranks and rebuild the palace of Nnamdi Kanu’s father, HRH Eze I. Kanu which was destroyed during the Python dance.
    “We also ask the leader , Nnamdi Kanu to change strategy and embrace the hands of genuine Igbo brothers and leaders. We still ask IPOB to have rethink on its decision of proscribing the parent body of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and disruption of Ohanaeze events and gathering”
    The group promised to lead any struggle to ensure self determination is not tagged terrorism, and ensure there is peaceful co-existence between all stakeholders in Southeast.