•Incarcerated IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB) has told the federal government and the Nigerian Army that it can no longer be blackmailed with Monday weekly sit-at-home because the whole Nigerians and the world knows that it has no hand in its continued observation by Ndigbo.
IPoB urged the federal government to release its leader Nnamdi Kanu if it wants the Monday weekly sit-at-home to stop, saying it is now a protest by Ndigbo against the continued illegal and malicious detention of Mazi Kanu, who is now being used as a pawn against Ndigbo, reports Vanguard.
The pro-Biafra group in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful entitled “Do not blackmail IPoB with Monday weekly sit-at-home, instead free Nnamdi Kanu”, said that Monday weekly sit-home is no more IPoB issue but a protest by Ndigbo against the illegal and malicious detention of Mazi Kanu.
IPoB statement read, “The noble family and movement of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, worldwide wish to categorically notify the Nigerian military and the Nigerian government that they can not blackmail IPoB and Eastern Security Network, ESN with Monday sit-at-home because we are a disciplined self-determination movement and has for long disassociated itself from Monday weekly sit-at-home.
“IPoB members and ESN operatives are disciplined freedom-fighting volunteers fighting for survival. IPoB and ESN are the reasons that the state-sponsored terrorists have not turned Biafra land into a mass grave. ESN operatives are the reason why Ndigbo still goes to their farm to date.
“ESN operatives are paying a heavy price in curtailing the activities of terrorists masquerading as herdsmen. The reason that the Nigerian government and her military are targeting and blackmailing ESN daily is to destroy all the defence lines of Biafrans. ESN remains the last defence for Ndigbo.
“Nigerian Army has not defended any indigenous tribe in Nigeria against the state-sponsored foreign Fulani terrorists let alone defending Ndigbo that they wish should be exterminated. Any Igbo person falling for the Nigerian government’s blackmail against IPoB and ESN is a fool who hasn’t understood the level of hatred that the Nigerian State has against Biafran people.
“To the Nigerian government, IPoB and ESN are big obstacles to their extermination and displacement plan against Ndigbo from our ancestral lands. No matter the level of attack, blackmail and extrajudicial executions, and disappearances caused by the Nigerian government against Ndigbo, IPoB remains committed towards safeguarding our land and the self-determination and independence efforts.
“The Nigerian military boasted of demarketing IPoB, and to make Ndigbo hate the movement using the infamous Monday sit-at-home, which the military and Police themselves helped to enforce. Before now, the Nigerian Army and Police patrol around some rural communities in the South East on Mondays, arresting youths seen on the road, thereby helping to enforce sit-at-home.
“The Nigerian government recruited the soulless criminals called Autopiloters to impersonate IPoB and ESN to kill and destroy our people and our people’s properties on Mondays in the name of enforcing the sit-at-home IPoB, already suspended. It was a covert operation between the Nigerian government and the agent provocateurs.
“Their agenda is to use the Monday sit-at-home to convince Ndigbo that IPoB is destroying their economy, but today Ndigbo have known the truth about their humiliation and maltreatment of their people and are now using Monday weekly sit-at-home to protest against injustices against them, particularly the continued malicious and illegal detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“IPoB initiated and suspended Monday sit-at-home after its first successful compliance. We have constantly condemned the violent enforcement of the sit-at-home, which the Nigerian Army and Police are part of. Since the buffoon in Finland was arrested by the Finnish authorities, the criminals enforcing sit-at-home have gone into hiding.
“That is to tell you that the sit-at-home enforcers were recruited to commit crimes with the name of Biafra and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Nevertheless, IPoB commends Ndigbo, who voluntarily chose to sit at home on Mondays in solidarity with our illegally abducted and detained leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s plight.
“IPoB are the people, and people are IPoB. There is no strategy that the Nigerian government will adopt to make Ndigbo reject themselves. Telling Ndigbo to reject IPoB and embrace the Nigerian Army is like telling people to reject their saviour and to embarrass their killers.
“The Nigerian Army should discard the idea of destroying IPoB, using bullets and blackmail because that is mission impossible. IPoB is rooted in a strong ideology of survival. The more Nigeria rejects and oppresses Ndigbo, the more the IPoB ideology is fueled.
Nigeria has rejected Ndigbo politically, socially, and economically, and Ndigbo has rejected Nigeria in our souls and spirits. To us, Nigeria has ceased to exist, but only for a time.
“The Nigerian military has shown their incapability of protecting Nigerians from terrorists who have taken over some local governments in Northern Nigeria. They are in the Eastern region to create artificial insecurity and to extort Ndigbo.
“How can a professional military occupy themselves with the obsession of ending a voluntary sit-at-home, which is a non-violent civil action instead of facing the rampaging terrorists ravaging the country? Only a weak military will preoccupy themselves with civil matters while leaving terrorism to thrive.
“The Nigerian Army should leave IPoB, ESN and our territory alone. The insecurity in the South East is an artificial one sponsored by the Nigerian State, who recruited criminals to destabilise the region but have failed. IPoB and ESN stand for Biafrans and remain the last line of defence for Ndigbo against the rampaging radical Islamic extremists in their conquest mission in Nigeria.
“The Nigerian Army is working with the radical extremists to destroy Biafra’s line of defence which is IPoB in order to pave the way for the terrorists to massacre Ndigbo and occupy our land like they have done in many parts of the Northern region.
“After the genocidal war against Ndigbo by the British and Nigerian governments. Ndigbo never had any group that is determined and courageous like IPoB and ESN. Ndigbo can’t miss the golden opportunity to support IPoB to restore our dignity as children of light, children of Chukwu Okike Abiama. A strong movement like IPoB comes once in many generations.
The Nigerian government, her military, and South East Governors and politicians should focus on addressing the issues that are responsible for the Monday sit-at-home, which is the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and a call for Biafra Referendum.
“The use of intimidation and bullying people to force them out on Mondays is a cruel tactic. Will the Nigerian Army go to the people’s houses to force them out on Mondays in order to end the sit-at-home?
The answer is NO. Any responsible government would engage in dialogue and superior arguments to win the trust of citizens, but in Nigeria everything is by military intimidation and force.
“Ndigbo love Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and have chosen to sit at home on Mondays in solidarity with him. Igbo Governors and the Nigerian government should toe the line of wisdom and release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and the Monday sit-at-home will immediately stop. Blackmailing IPoB and ESN with Monday sit-at-home is a strategy that is dead on arrival.”
