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Tag: IPOB

  • IPOB disowns Nnamdi Kanu’s self-proclaimed loyalist, Simon Ekpa

    IPOB disowns Nnamdi Kanu’s self-proclaimed loyalist, Simon Ekpa

    The Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB), has noted that  Simon Ekpa the self-proclaimed leader and loyalist to its leader, Nnamdi Kanu is not their member.

    IPOB has now disclosed that the Finland-based disciple was not their member and will do everything to expose him.

    The Kanu-led group denied Ekpa against the backdrop of the five-day sit-at-home he declared across the South-East.

    According to Emma Powerful, the spokesman of IPOB, said the sit-at-home order declared by Ekpa had exposed him as an enemy of the group.

    A statement by Powerful said the order was aimed at destroying lives and properties in the South-East.

    “IPOB will stop at nothing from exposing Simon Ekpa. We must expose him for clarity’s sake, and nobody should link him with IPOB. He is not our member and can never be an IPOB member,” the statement read.

    The recent killings and destruction in the South-East have been linked to Ekpa.

    The Finland-based Biafra agitator recently ordered a five-day sit-at-home which led to the destruction of lives and properties in the South-East.

  • I was denied access to food, drugs in DSS Custody – Nnamdi Kanu

    I was denied access to food, drugs in DSS Custody – Nnamdi Kanu

     

    The embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, has revealed how the Department of State Services, (DSS) denied him access to medications for a week and more, adding that they also starved him of food for days.

    Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu’s special counsel made this known via social media after his routine meeting with the IPOB leader at the DSS facility on Thursday.

    Ejimakor  post reads: “Special Update: Today, I visited #MNK in the company of Prince Emma Kanu & Barr. Nnaemeka Ejiofor.

    “He instructed me to make it public that he has not been given his drugs for the past 9 days & he has not eaten today because DSS says that they don’t have money to buy his food. #Sad.”

    Ejimakor said the legal team has decided to give the DSS money to purchase food for Kanu.

    “We have decided to take money to them as a deposit for his food. They won’t allow food brought by others, including family,” he told DAILY POST upon further inquiry.

  • Police discover biggest bomb factory in Ebonyi state

    Police discover biggest bomb factory in Ebonyi state

    The Ebonyi state police command has said that it has discovered the biggest bomb factory where the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB), and Eastern Security Network, (ESN) produce some explosives and other dangerous weapons.

    According to the Police in Ebonyi state, the bomb factory is the biggest in the southeast region of the country.

    The Command said the IPOB/ESN bomb factory was located at Obegu, a boundary area between Onicha-Isu and Ishielu Local government areas of Ebonyi State.

    Ayanwu noted that the police discovered the bomb factory after a gun battle between his men and ESN soldiers.

    The police chief said that the bomb factory is capable of causing mass killings and damages.

    Anyanwu said the bomb factory is capable of causing mass killings and damages.

    He disclosed that two members of ESN and a State Commander died during the gun-battle which ensued when policemen on investigation were attacked along Agba-Isu road on Wednesday.

    He disclosed that some of the policemen sustained injuries during the operation.

    He noted that following the gun duel, a joint team of the Command’s Tactical Teams, the Military and DSS, armed with credible information, swooped on the houses/residences of the Commander and others.

    The Command spokesman said searches carried out on the residences led to the discoveries of Improvised Explosive Devices and parts used in making IEDs.

    A statement by Anyanwu reads partly: “A quick trail and joint effort with a team of detectives attached to Ohaukwu Division led to the arrest of Sunday Ubah, a.k.a Bongo, the State Commander of the IPOB/ESN in Ebonyi State.

    “The Police bomb expert in the Command described it as a complete Bomb Factory – the biggest in the South-East and that each of the hand grenades (first of its kind) is capable of causing colossal damage to buildings and mass killing of humans.”

    Meanwhile, the IPOB has repeatedly denied being involved in any form of violence or arms deal.

  • Sit-At -Home: Gunmen attack Ebonyi community to enforce Samuel Ekpa’s order

    Sit-At -Home: Gunmen attack Ebonyi community to enforce Samuel Ekpa’s order

    Indigenes and shop owners scampered for safety as gunmen invaded some parts of Abakaliki, the Ebonyi state capital to enforce the sit at home order as instructed by the Finland based Simon Ekpa.

    Ekpa the self-acclaimed loyalist of detained IPOB chief Nnamdi Kanu gave the order sometimes last week from his base.

    It was gathered that some villages in the state  deserted the streets of Abakaliki owing to the sporadic shootings by these unknown gunmen.

    Traders hurriedly closed their shops and went into hideouts for fear of being killed or hit by a stray bullet.

    According to an eye witness account, a woman who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the unknown gunmen invaded Ahia-Ohuru Market in Abakaliki and started shooting sporadically to scare people both traders and buyers away.

    She said: “People who were around saw the unknown gunmen who rode on two motorcycles, with guns. They were shooting anyhow to scare people away. They even burnt down a shop belonging to a woman. They saw the woman bringing out her goods, they met her and told her to close the shop.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that some hoodlums too attacked a community in Imo state and killing three persons before the operatives of the police force arrived to repel the attack.

    According to him: “People who were around saw the unknown gunmen who rode on two motorcycles, with guns. They were shooting anyhow to scare people away. They even burnt down a shop belonging to a woman. They saw the woman bringing out her goods, they met her and told her to close the shop.

    “The woman was asking them, what offense did she commit? Before you knew it, they poured fuel on the shop and set it ablaze. They were four in number.”

    Similarly, it was gathered that the popular Ebonyi International Market was abruptly closed, as well as all fuel stations in the State capital, shopping mall and other event centres in the State.

    It was also gathered that the said gunmen reportedly killed some persons at Izziamgbo junction, Ishieke junction and other places in the State.

    However, in a swift reaction, the Commissioner of Police, Ebonyi State command, CP. Aliyu Garba, who spoke to newsmen in Abakaliki, said there was no invasion by unknown gunmen in the State.

    He asked the citizens of the State to remain calm.

    CP. Garba noted further that he had deployed hundreds of police officers to go on patrol, looking for the said unknown gunmen.

     

  • “Kanu has not ordered any sit-at-home in Southeast”- Ejiofor cries out

    “Kanu has not ordered any sit-at-home in Southeast”- Ejiofor cries out

    Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has informed his legal team led by his lead counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, that he did not order any sit-at-home in the Southeast.

    He disclosed this during his routine meeting with his legal team at the Department of State Services, DSS, facility in Abuja.

    According to Kanu, rebels are enforcing the sit-at-home order in the Southeast.

    Kanu’s denial followed a five-day sit-at-home order by his self-acclaimed disciple based in Finland, Simon Ekpa.

    A statement by Ejiofor said: “Kanu unequivocally stated that he has not ordered any sit-at-home.

    “He directs that all our people should go about their normal life and businesses without let or hindrance so as not to destroy the socio-economic life of our people, which have become the envy of all.

    “Destructive activities of some hired marauders who are presently exploiting the temporary absence of Onyendu to cause untold mayhem, vandalism and calamity on our sacred ancestral lands were thoroughly discussed.

    “Onyendu reiterated and emphasized his long-held position of distancing himself and his IPOB movement from the illegal and nefarious activities of these God-forsaken elements who mean no well for the Ndigbo and Alaigbo.”

    IPOB had ordered the sit-at-home to push for Kanu’s release in the Southeast.

    The group had ordered Mondays sit-at-home to agitate against Kanu’s continued detention.

    The order was, however, taken over by miscreants using the situation to carry out nefarious attacks.

    Some people were killed while properties were destroyed by some nefarious elements enforcing the sit-at-home order.

    Following this action, IPOB canceled the sit-at-home order.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that IPOB is a nationalist separatist group in Nigeria that aims to restore the Republic of Biafra, a country which seceded from Nigeria prior to the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) and later rejoined Nigeria after its defeat by the Nigerian military.

    Since 2021, IPOB and other Biafran separatist groups have been fighting a low-level guerilla conflict in southeastern Nigeria against the Nigerian government. The group was founded in 2012 by Nnamdi Kanu, a British Nigerian political activist known for his advocacy of the contemporary Biafran independence movement.

    It was deemed a terrorist organization by the Nigerian government in 2017 under the Nigerian Terrorism Act. As of May 2022, the United Kingdom started denying asylum to members of IPOB who engaged in human rights abuses, though the U.K. government clarified that IPOB had not been designated as a terrorist organisation.

    IPOB had criticized the Nigerian federal government for poor investment, political alienation, inequitable resource distribution, ethnic marginalization, and heavy military presence, extrajudicial killings in the South-Eastern, South-Central and parts of North-Central regions of the country.

     

  • IPOB disassociates self from attack on INEC office in Imo state

    IPOB disassociates self from attack on INEC office in Imo state

    In a statement signed by the media and publicity Secretary of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Emma Powerful, the group disassociated itself from recent attacks on INEC offices in Imo State and elsewhere, saying the Nigeria Police is merely blackmailing it by linking the group with the attacks.

    According to the statement, it said neither IPOB nor ESN operatives has anything to do with the attacks and Nigerian elections in 2023.

    It said: “We have never supported nor involved ourselves in any election obstruction or violence as a movement.

    “The only actions we can take is to call our people to boycott voting if the need arises. But as of today, IPOB is not interested in Nigeria and its electoral activities and have never asked anyone to carry out any attack on our behalf.

    “For the Nigerian Government and her compromised Police to link IPOB and ESN to their sponsored attacks on INEC Offices has shown that they are deluded, misguided, deceitful, and don’t know the norms on which IPOB operations.

    “Nigeria Government and her Security Agencies are working day and night to blackmail IPOB self-determination Movement. They sponsor criminals to attack government facilities so they can rush to media to blame the attacks on IPOB and ESN without investigation”.

    It said there has never been anytime that Nigeria Police carried out any public inquiry on all the numerous attacks and arsons that they blamed IPOB for adding that “ESN operatives never attacked INEC office because we are not interested in this Nigeria’s forthcoming election in 2023.

    “Any one or group blaming IPOB or ESN for any attack on INEC facilities is under the influence of some powerful drugs. IPOB will not spare anybody using our name to disrupt election, and no body should link us with those who are destroying election materials”, it added.
    Besides according to the statement, IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi KANU has said it several times that he has not asked anyone to carry out any attack on his behalf.

    For that reason, the statement continued, no body should link the group with the attack on INEC office in Owerri Imo State, it stated.

  • Court strikes out Nnamdi Kanu’s N20bn suit against Malami, NIA boss

    Court strikes out Nnamdi Kanu’s N20bn suit against Malami, NIA boss

    A Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja, on Friday, struck out a N20 billion suit filed by leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, against the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, SAN.

    Newsmen reports that Kanu, through his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, had sued Malami and the Director-General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar, as 1st and 2nd defendants respectively.

    Justice Inyang Ekwo, however, struck out the suit after I.C. Nworgu, who appeared for the IPOB leader, told the court that the plaintiff had resolved to withdraw the suit.

    Nworgu said the notice of discontinuance had already been filed.
    The application, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1702/2022, was filed pursuant to Order 50, Rules 2(1) of the FHC Civil Procedure Rules, 2019.
    NAN reports that Justice Ekwo had, on Oct. 27, fixed Friday for hearing in the the suit.

    The application, dated and filed on Sept. 23, had sought “a declaration that the defendants’ arrest and imprisonment of the plaintiff (Kanu) at a location in Kenya and the subsequent imprisonment of the plaintiff in the aircraft that conveyed him from Kenya to Nigeria amounted to false arrest and false imprisonment.

    “A declaration of this honourable court that the defendants acted in bad faith and/or abused their public offices in falsely arresting and falsely imprisoning the plaintiff at the said location in Kenya and said aircraft.

    “An order of this honourable court directing the defendants to, jointly and severally, pay to the plaintiff the sum of N20,000,000,000.00 (Twenty Billion Naira only) being general and exemplary damages.

    “An order of this honourable court directing the defendants to separately write and deliver to the plaintiff, an unreserved personal letter of apology.”
    He prayed that the letters of apology shall be prominently and boldly published full-page in two Nigerian newspapers of national circulation.

    He also sought an order of the court, directing the defendants to pay the cost of the suit, among others.

  • Nnamdi Kanu’s medical condition is worsening, intervene- IPOB Lawyer begs EU

    Nnamdi Kanu’s medical condition is worsening, intervene- IPOB Lawyer begs EU

    Aloy Ejimakor, counsel to
    Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has urged the European Union (EU) in Nigeria to intervene in  Nnamdi Kanu’s case, noting that his medical condition is worsening.

    Ejimakor, who wrote a letter to the EU on Wednesday, opined that the Federal Government would listen to a plea from the union.

    He asked the EU to urge the Federal Government to desist from further criminal prosecution of Kanu.

    The letter read, “We the solicitors of Nnamdi Kanu on whose behalf and instruction we hereby most respectfully request for the urgent intervention of the European Union Delegation in urging the Government of Nigeria to promptly implement the opinion of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the pertinent judgement of the Federal High Court of Nigeria (Umuahia) regarding the matter of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who is currently detained by the GON in solitary confinement.

    “We are also very alarmed at the worsening health condition of Mr Kanu, exacerbated by the inhumane detention conditions to which he is being subjected, including his solitary confinement since June 27, 2021.

    “We trust therefore that your mission and home governments will give the most urgent and expeditious attention and consideration to our humble prayers.”

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Kanu is a British-Nigerian political activist who advocates for the secession and independence of Biafra from Nigeria.

    He is the leader of IPOB, which he founded in 2014. The main aim of IPOB is to restore the separatist state of Biafra which existed in Nigeria’s Eastern Region during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–1970.

    After two-and-a-half years of war, during which almost two million Biafran civilians (three-quarters of them small children) died from starvation caused by the total blockade of the region by the Nigerian government, Biafran forces under Nigeria’s motto of “No-victor, No-vanquished” surrendered to the Nigerian Federal Military Government (FMG).

    The surrender was facilitated by the Biafran Vice President and Chief of General Staff, Major General Philip Effiong, who assumed leadership of the Republic of Biafra after the original President, Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, fled to Ivory Coast.

    After the surrender of Biafrans, some Igbos who had fled the conflict returned to their properties but were unable to claim them back from new occupants. This became law in the Abandoned Properties Act (28 September 1979).

  • Primate Ayodele tells Buhari what to do before 2023 elections

    Primate Ayodele tells Buhari what to do before 2023 elections

    The leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, on Sunday, advised President Muhammadu Buhari to dialogue with the Biafra nation, the Eastern Security Network, and Yoruba nation agitators for the sake of peace during the 2023 election.

    In a statement signed by his Media Aide, Osho Oluwatosin, Primate Ayodele revealed that the agitators are planning to cause a crisis during the election.

    He urged the government not to underrate the agitators to avoid making errors that would disrupt the nation’s peace.

    He asked that the government call them for a dialogue and settle things amicably.

    According to Ayodele, now is the best time to avoid the crisis planned to mar the 2023 general elections.

    He said: ‘’The government must work on the security of the nation because agitators are planning something.

    “The likes of IPOB, ESN, Oduduwa nation agitators should be called for dialogue.

    “They should not underrate them to avoid errors. They should call them, talk to them in order to ensure peace.’’

  • Tinubu challenges IPOB “Sit At Home” order, to hold campaign rallies In Anambra, Imo on Mondays

    Tinubu challenges IPOB “Sit At Home” order, to hold campaign rallies In Anambra, Imo on Mondays

    The APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, has said he would hold his campaign rallies in Imo and Anambra States on Mondays despite the controversial sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the Southeast region.

    The timetable released by the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) shows that Tinubu will hold a campaign rally and a stakeholders’ engagement in Imo State on Monday, 21 November.

    On Monday, 30 January, the campaign train will move to Anambra, the home state of Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate.

    IPOB declared the sit-at-home order in August 2021 to put pressure on the Nigerian government to release its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who is standing trial at the Federal High Court, Abuja, for treason and terrorism.

    The proscribed separatist group initially declared the holiday for Mondays but later extended it to every day Mr Kanu appears in court.

    There have been reported cases of the use of force by the group to enforce compliance. Gunmen have attacked traders and commuters across the region who flout the order. However, in recent times, compliance with the order has reduced with Southeast governors deploying means to take control of the situation.

    The group has also vowed to disrupt all election activities in the region and has attacked electoral officers and party members.

    Tinubu has yet to declare his stance on the group, unlike Obi that already promised to sit down with all agitators to find peace. However, the APC candidate’s campaign team is now set to dare the separatist group.

    Apart from enforcing the controversial sit-at-home, gunmen suspected to be IPOB members have also routinely carried out attacks in the South-east, killing many people and kidnapping others for ransom.

    On Thursday, the Director General of the campaign council and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, said the campaign will flag off in Jos, the Plateau State capital on 15 November.

    This will be followed by rallies in Delta on November 15, Imo on 21, Kwara on 22, Anambra on 24, Ogun on 26, Enugu on 29 and Sokoto on 30 November.

    The APC will hold two rallies in Lagos and Kano State. In Lagos, rallies will be held on 3 December and 13 February.

    And for Kano, 4 January and 11 February.

    While the Rivers State rally is scheduled for 1 December, the timetable says Tinubu will spend the second week of December on “international engagement.”

    The Osun State rally is scheduled for 24 January. And for Abuja, there will be a rally and musical concert on 8 February.

    The Lagos State rally on 13 February will mark the end of the presidential campaign activities for the party and the last ten days before the election will be spent on “election planning.”