- Simon Ekpa not our member, IPOB said
- Nigerian army using promoters of violent enforcement of sit-at-home to blackmail IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, group said
- The group asked the FG to obey court order and release Nnamdi Kanu
The Indigenous People of Biafra says it has no hand in the recent wave of attacks and killings occasioned by the violent enforcement of the sit-at-home order across the South-East.
This is as the group implored the Federal government to release pro-Biafran leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to end insecurity in the South-East region.
It also distanced itself from the sit-at-home order issued by Simon Ekpa, a self-acclaimed leader of the party leaving in Finland.
The proscribed group pointed out that if the Federal Government really wants insecurity to end in the South-East, it should release Kanu unconditionally from detention as pronounced by the courts.
In a statement by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, on Friday, the group decried the statement credited to the Nigerian Army linking it to the incessant sit-at-home orders and enforcement in the South-East.
Powerful said, “The Army chief, Gen. Lagbaja Taoreed will not claim ignorance of all the previous press releases written by IPOB led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu disassociating ourselves from Simon Ekpa and his criminal sit-at-home enforcers.
“For the avoidance of doubt, IPOB is not responsible for Mondays nor failed seven-day and purported two-week sit-at-home orders and enforcement.
“The reckless and abusive sit-at-home strategy is from the autopilot group led by Simon Ekpa. We have consistently made it known that Simon Ekpa and his autopilot group are not IPOB members and do not represent Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in their violent enforcement of sit-at-home orders.
“Recently, IPOB members rallied in Lahti City in Finland to demonstrate to the world that Simon Ekpa is not an IPOB member which is why he couldn’t come out to identify with the protesters.
“If indeed, the Federal Government and her security agencies are interested in the peace of the South-Eastern region, they should release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally as pronounced by the Appeal Court of Nigeria in Abuja, and see the sponsored criminal agents using Kanu’s detention to perpetrate crime go into oblivion and fade away.
“IPOB has remained peaceful, and when our Directorate of State initiated a sit-at-home that the autopilot has hijacked and abused, we never enforced it. Nevertheless, our people voluntarily complied.
“Therefore, for the Nigeria Army to associate the reckless sit-at-home enforcement to IPOB is to show that the Federal Government is using the promoters of violent enforcement of sit-at-home and criminalities in the South-East to blackmail IPOB and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”