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.