Did soldiers try to kill IPOB leader in his country home?

The attack, eyewitnesses say, occurred on Sunday, September 10, 2017.

Kanu himself has also said he was the target of an assassination attempt last weekend.

According to some separatists under the IPOB umbrella, the assailants who stormed the Afaraukwu, Umuahia country home of the Kanus, spotted uniforms of the army and police and arrived in five Hilux vans.

“They started shooting sporadically and killed five people. 30 other persons were left with bullet wounds. After attacking our people, they drove off in five Hilux vans”, said IPOB media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful.

Pulse has been shown images and footage of some 'wounded IPOB members' being taken to the federal medical center in Umuahia.

Tissue of lies

But the police and army have denied news reports that they shot at IPOB members and killed some of them.

The army said there is “no iota of truth” in claims made by IPOB.

According to Major Oyegoke Gbadamosi who is the Director, Army Public Relations, 14 Brigade of the Nigerian army, the allegations from IPOB are “far from the truth".

Gbadamosi added that: “Rather, it was a group of suspected IPOB militants that blocked the road against troops of 145 Battalion while on a show of force along road in Umuahia town, Abia State at about 6:00-6:30pm on Sunday.

“They insisted that the military vehicles would not pass and started pelting the soldiers with stones and broken bottles to the point of injuring an innocent female passerby and a soldier,

“The troops fired warning shots in the air and the hoodlums dispersed. No life was lost.

“Therefore the public are kindly enjoined to disregard the rumours going round and the fictitious photographs of purported victims of attack”.

The police has also denied that it attacked IPOB separatists last weekend.

“I have just spoken to the Commanding Officer”, said Leye Oyebade who is Abia police commissioner. “He said a repaired military armoured vehicle was used to patrol the Umuahia metropolis. I gathered that they were shooting sporadically, which led to the IPOB group wielding daggers, throwing broken bottles at them.

“Unfortunately, a policeman on guard duties going to work was machete by the IPOB group, while a soldier and a civilian were equally injured. All are being treated at the Police clinic for minor injuries sustained. Normalcy has since been restored".

Human shield

However, the man at the center of it all, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu said he’s only alive because IPOB members formed a human shield round his father’s compound when the soldiers and police officers came calling.

“I was sleeping on Sunday when suddenly I was woken up by the blaring of sirens”, Kanu said. “Initially, I thought it was the Commissioner of police who lives in the neighborhood that was returning home. But the blaring persisted and was followed by sporadic gunshots.

“They wanted to bulldoze their way into the palace but IPOB members formed a human shield and resisted them. They wanted to break the shield and fired at three persons and wounded others before leaving.

“Everybody, including children were running away in confusion”.

Kanu also added that the army has decided to bring the war to IPOB in the Igbo heartland.

“They want to use force and beat us into submission because they have lost the argument but they will fail. They want to trigger war but we won’t oblige them because we are committed to our non-violent philosophy”, said the IPOB leader.

ALSO READ: 'They're provoking us to war', IPOB leader accuses Army

Kanu says the army and police "have perfected the art of lying".

Shocking invasion

Kanu’s Dad, Eze Israel Kanu, said the “invasion” was “unwarranted and shocking”.

Israel Kanu is King of Afaraukwu in Umuahia.

Kanu’s IPOB and law enforcement have had bloody clashes in the past.

The IPOB leader is undergoing trial for treasonable felony and illicit possession of firearms.

Though on bail, Kanu has flouted all his release conditions.

Kanu wants a sovereign Biafra nation carved out of the present Nigeria State.

Mazi Kanu was born in September of 1967; smack in the middle of the civil war that claimed the lives of over a million Igbos in southeastern Nigeria--a part of the country Kanu hails from.