- He’s far beyond military’s reach – Brother
- You can’t ban what you didn’t register, MASSOB tells FG
Strong indications emerged on Sunday that Nnamdi Kanu, the wanted leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, and some of his top aides have escaped to the creeks, somewhere in the Niger Delta, a situation said to be causing sleepless nights for security outfits on his trail.
The Point exclusively gathered that fierce-looking and gun-wielding militants are now shielding the IPOB leader in the creeks.
A top security source, craving anonymity, however, expressed worry that Kanu’s escape to the creeks might compound the problem on hand, “as the harmless pro-Biafra leader will now be turned to a warlord, as he is surely going to be tutored in the art of war by the militants.”
Speaking on why Kanu is not going to leave the creeks any moment soon, an IPOB source said, “We have to apply wisdom to whatever we are doing. We have realised that there is a grand conspiracy against Kanu and other top leaders of our group.
“Just imagine, barely few hours after the Nigerian military declared members of the IPOB and other pro-Biafra groups as terrorists, the South-East governors came up with their own outright ban of our activities.
“This definitely will give the soldiers and other security agencies the opportunity to arrest our leader and mount a deadly clampdown on all IPOB members. So, it is better to operate from a hideout for now.”
Complementing the source, some IPOB members, who also did not want their names mentioned, explained that Kanu and others were advised to go underground, following the declaration by the Army and the decision of the South-East governors to proscribe the activities of pro-Biafra agitators in the region.
Kanu’s younger brother, popularly called Fine Boy, who spoke exclusively with our correspondent, said the troops could not get at the IPOB leader during the September 14 attack on his home.
Fine Boy, who regretted the killing of many IPOB members during the attack, told our correspondent that Kanu was now far beyond the reach of the military.
“The invading troops did not get at him and he’s not among those taken away. The whereabouts of the leader (Kanu) cannot be known. But they succeeded in killing as many IPOB members as they saw at the palace. In short, they have desecrated the palace,” he added.
Since September 14, when troops of the Nigerian Army invaded Kanu’s home, which has also served as the headquarters of his proscribed organisation, the whereabouts of the IPOB leader and his aged parents have remained unknown.
Kanu’s father, Eze Israel Kanu, is the traditional ruler of Isiama Afaraukwu Ibeku Autonomous Community in Umuahia Local Government Area of the state.
The IPOB leader last appeared in public on September 8, when he met with the South East Governor’s Forum in Enugu, the capital of Enugu State. A second meeting with the Forum, which was scheduled to hold on September 11, was cancelled at his instance, citing security reasons.
The cancellation of the meeting followed a clash between soldiers from the 145 Battalion, 14 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Ohafia, and IPOB members within the vicinity of Kanu’s home, the previous day.
But the leadership of IPOB has insisted that the Federal Government and the military should account for Kanu and his parents’ whereabouts.
The spokesman of the 14 Brigade Ohafia, Major Oyegoke Gbadamosi, declined to speak on the issue.
Similarly, the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, 82 Division, Enugu, Col. Sagir Musa, did not pick calls made to his phone at the weekend.
Also, calls made by our correspondent to the two telephone lines dedicated to the ongoing Operation Python Dance 11 did not receive any response.
However, some locals in Afaraukwu, Kanu’s community near Umuahia, the Abia State capital, expressed the belief that it was likely ‘their son’ was smuggled out to Europe through land borders, a scenario similar to the way Prof. Wole Soyinka escaped the military hunt through the Seme/Idiroko border in the thick of the June 12, 1993 election’s annulment.
The Nigerian Army, penultimate Friday, had declared that IPOB and other pro-Biafra groups were terrorist organisations, following the activities and actions of its leader, who was due to appear in court in October.
Last Wednesday, a Federal High Court in Abuja granted an order proscribing IPOB. The court also declared all the activities of the group, particularly in the South East and South South, illegal.
It further restrained any person or group of persons from participating in IPOB’s activities.
It was gathered that the government felt that it could be dangerous to leave Kanu a free man till the next adjourned date, later in October, when his case would come up at an Abuja Federal High Court. The Army, therefore, declared ‘Operation Python Dance’ in order to hunt down the members of the pro-Biafra group.
A top security source said, “We are seriously looking for him. He has a lot of things to explain to the government concerning his statements, actions and activities.”
THE GOV IKPEAZU CONNECTION
According to a source, Kanu was becoming “over popular”, even more than the Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, as the former’s home, a stone throw to the Government House, was being flooded daily, by different visitors, many of who glided in exotic cars.
It was learnt that due to this, the governor alerted the Federal Government, complaining of the activities of the pro-Biafra leader in the state.
“The governor felt leaving the IPOB leader unchecked would turn the state into the headquarters of the group,” the source noted.
Ikpeazu, it was learnt, also took another step, by summoning and cautioning the IPOB leader’s father, Eze Israel Kanu, the traditional ruler of the town, who sources said was giving his son some tacit backing in the Biafra struggle.
Following the governor’s actions, the IPOB leader reportedly resolved to go underground, to prevent his arrest.
It was learnt that Kanu subsequently escaped to the creeks of the Niger Delta, a day before the military invasion of his Afaraukwu community, as he was said to have been tipped off by some security agents, who had soft spots for him.
MANHUNT FOR KANU IN PROGRESS
Meanwhile, at press time, security agencies were busy combing the South-East region in search of Kanu, sources hinted.
Findings in Abuja showed that security agencies had been directed to arrest Kanu and other leaders of his group.
The directive to arrest the IPOB leaders was said to have been communicated to the top brass of the security agencies deployed in the region.
“We are making frantic efforts to arrest him because he is a security risk to the nation. We can’t allow an individual to continue to threaten the unity of this country and people say we should fold our arms and watch him,” a security official disclosed.
ONGOING FACE-OFF WITH ALLEGED FOREIGN ALLIES
It was gathered that the Federal Government might also make strong representations to countries believed to be giving the pro-Biafra groups underground support.
“Government plans to do something urgent about the countries and individuals that are sponsoring and helping these groups to recruit youths, giving them arms to foment trouble in the country,” the source said.
According to the source, the recent increase in the shipment of arms and ammunition into the country through the seaports is giving the government serious concern and the government intends to probe how these arms and ammunition entered into the country.
“We are going to declare a manhunt for those who sponsor these groups and import arms and ammunition into the country, including the countries giving the groups support. We have been seizing arms and ammunition at the ports; we also need to know what they were meant for,” he said.
To buttress this development, the operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service had intercepted a container loaded with 1,100 pieces of pump action rifles at Tin Can Port, Apapa, Lagos, making a total of 2,201 of such arms seized at three different times this year.
SUSPECTED SPONSORS
The Comptroller-General of the NCS, Hameed Ali, who displayed the seized arms at the Tin Can Command of the Service, recently, disclosed that the rifles were discovered in a 20-foot container numbered GESU 2555208, which originated from Turkey.
He also said two people had been arrested – the Customs officer that authorised the cutting of the seal and a terminal clerk.
Ali, who was apparently worried about the incessant importation of arms into the country lately, said, “The importation of 1,100 rifles at a time when the nation is undergoing some security challenges is a clear indication that there are, indeed, some elements who do not believe in unity, peace and wellbeing of Nigeria.”
He expressed displeasure that all the three containers of arms intercepted by the service this year were from Turkey.
Some stakeholders also called on the Federal Government to register diplomatic protest to the Turkish authorities, saying that the recent occurrence at the port, put the country on the list of suspected arms sponsors of these groups, including Boko Haram and other militants.
The Federal Government had also revealed that the financial headquarters of IPOB was in France.
PRO-BIAFRA GROUPS NOT VIOLENT – MADU
But speaking to The Point in Owerri, Imo State, the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Chief Uchenna Madu, exonerated Pro-Biafra groups, saying that they were non-violent bodies seeking the realisation of the Biafra state.
He said, “We have no intention of taking to arms struggle; we are non-violent groups. They are calling us terrorists but we are not arm-carrying groups.
“Why should they look for us? Are we criminals? They should go and look for Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, and then, they should go and look after their dying President.”
He also disclosed that the recent action of the Federal Government had increased the interest of international communities in the Biafra agitation.
“As a matter of fact, because of the recent happening, the international support concerning Biafra has increased,” he added.
Madu criticised the government “for attacking France, accusing them of being behind the pro-Biafra groups.”
“The label is government’s antics to suppress us, but nobody can destroy Biafra revolution. It is an ideology, which nobody can separate from an Igbo man,” he argued.
Describing the government’s statement on the proscription of pro-Biafra groups as “rubbish”, he said, “Nobody can ban or proscribe the groups. Neither the South-East governors nor the court established IPOB; and you cannot ban what you did not register. All these groups were there before the governors.”
ACTIVIST CALLS FOR TRUCE
Reacting, a human rights activist, Emman Okere, called for truce between the government and the Pro-Biafra groups, but regretted that the Federal Government wasted unnecessary time on the issue.
“The government has frightened the IPOB leader and pushed him into hiding and it may be difficult for the young man to trust the government on any dialogue,” he pointed out.
He said that the killing of some members of the pro-Biafra groups in Abia State by the soldiers should be investigated.
Okere said, “Ordering young men to lay face down in the mud is the worst punishment anybody can mete out to his fellow human being. And if the government could do this to Kanu’s loyalists, what would have happened if the soldiers had caught Kanu himself, the day they stormed the state?
“We don’t pray for any violence but we cannot achieve peace if there is injustice. Chasing the young man into hiding is dangerous.”
