IPOB orders members to attack South-East governors abroad

Bayo Wahab 09:33 - 18 August 2019

Supporters of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) march in Port Harcourt on January 20, 2017 in support of the US president-elect

IPOB spokesperson, Mr Emma Powerful says the directive to attack the governors was given by Nnamdi Kanu.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has reportedly ordered its members in 100 countries to attack governors of Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia and Anambra states whenever they are seen in those countries.

The group said the governors have been marked as enemies to be attacked if they were seen in any of the 100 countries, Punch reports.

IPOB also issued a warning to the President-General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, who it accused of supporting the Nigeria Army’s Operation Python Dance in the South-East.

Recall that in 2016, following series of protests by IPOB members, who were clamouring for secession from Nigeria, the Army launched Operation Python Dance.

In a bid to quell the incessant protests of the pro-Biafra group, the army raided Umuahia, the capital of Abia and home town of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, whose whereabouts remains unknown till now.

Nnamdi Kanu, pictured in 2017 in the garden of his house in Umuahia, southeast Nigeria, disappeared later that year while on bail, later re-emerging first in Jerusalem, then Britain

Nnamdi Kanu was said to have given directive to IPOB members to beat South-East leaders if seen abroad. (Daily Post)

Consequently, the Federal Government under the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2013, designated IPOB as a terrorist organisation in September 2017.

Speaking on the order to attack the governors, IPOB spokesperson, Mr Emma Powerful said the directive to attack the governors was given by Kanu, adding that the attack on the former Deputy Senate President, Dr Ike Ekweremadu on Saturday, August 17, 2019, in Germany was carried out in obedience to the IPOB leader.

Describing him as a traitor, who was among the people that got IPOB proscribed, Powerful said, Ekweremadu was “disgraced by the IPOB Nuremberg Family as an Operation Python Dance instigator.”

Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has served in the Senate for 16 years. (Punch)

The spokesman of the pro-Biafra group added that same treatment would be meted out South-East governors and Ndigbo leaders, if they attend any public event abroad.

He said: “Today (Saturday), the Nuremberg IPOB family in Germany, in keeping with the long-standing directive from our leader to hound all instigators of the Operation Python Dance, is glad to report that Ike Ekweremadu was confronted and duly hounded out of a so-called New Yam Festival event in Germany.

“Despite repeated warnings to the organisers of this jamboree that Enugu, Ebonyi and other parts of ‘Biafraland’ is under siege by the Fulani caliphate and their collaborators within, they went ahead to invite a known traitor, co-conspirator and one of those who worked with Igbo governors to proscribe and tag IPOB a terror organisation while they never raised any voice against the murderous Fulani herdsmen.

“This should serve as a warning to Nnia Nwodo, Dave Umahi, Okezie Ikpeazu, Willie Obiano and others that any day we find them in a public event abroad, they will be humiliated. IPOB is strategically located in over 100 countries around the world. Anywhere we find them, they will be dealt with.”

In a video that went viral on Saturday, August 17, 2019, former DSP, Ekweremadu, who has served in the Nigerian Senate since 2003 was seen being pelted with stones, water packs and yams by by a group of men later identified to be IPOB members.

Confirming the incident, the lawmaker described it as unfortunate.

In a statement by his his media aide, Uche Anichukwu, the Senator said was attacked by members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB in Nuremberg, Germany at the Second Annual Cultural Festival and Convention organised by the Ndigbo Germany.