The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has drawn attention to what it described as “a dangerous lie that has been carefully constructed to justify the continued detention and conviction of our leader.”
The separatist group declared that the charge of insecurity in the South East for which Justice James Omotosho handed leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, life sentence falls under intense scrutiny arguing that the insecurity was orchestrated by politicians who felt threatened by growing popularity of Kanu.
IPOB noted in a statement issued by the media and publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, that, “Immediately after the extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in June 2021, desperate political actors—many of whom have long envied his influence—unleashed violence and chaos across the South-East. Their aim was simple and wicked: create insecurity and blame it on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, so they could later claim they were right to abduct, detain, and jail him.”
According to Powerful, “These are the same people who rushed to proscribe IPOB, after Ekwulobia and Aba mega rallies in mid-2017, where millions trooped out just to catch a glimpse of our leader, even though the Abuja Federal High Court had earlier in March 2017 ruled that IPOB is not a terrorist organisation. In plain terms, a group declared lawful by a court was later branded “terrorist” through ex-parte for political convenience.
“These are the same people that killed IPOB members that organised and attended President Trump Solidarity Rally in Igweocha (Port Harcourt) on 20 January 2017. Again, Biafrans killed without justification.
“It is painful to note that yet again, the same forces behind the manufactured insecurity are the same ones who unleashed Operation Python Dance, a military operation that targeted Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for assassination and led to the killing of unarmed civilians across the South-East with 28 murdered in his country home.”
The group expressed shock that under the foregoing scenario, Omotosho in his judgement repeatedly cited insecurity in the South-East from 2022 onwards and blamed it on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu—despite the fact that Mazi Kanu had already been abducted, rendered to Nigeria, and locked in underground solitary confinement.
“Let Nigerians and the world pause and think: Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was held incommunicado in the custody of the (DSS) in Abuja. He had no phone, no visitors, no access to the outside world. Yet he was blamed for events said to have happened in the South-East, outside prison walls.
“This is not justice. It is judicial nonsense. Let us state the absurdity clearly: A man in total state custody was convicted for crimes allegedly committed while he was in chains.
“In any sane country, such reasoning by a supposed learned judge would attract instant condemnation from fellow judges and the legal fraternity. But in Nigeria, the plot was so well executed that many people stopped asking basic questions.”
IPOB therefore called on the
international community, Human rights organisations, Lawyers and judges of conscience to look beyond propaganda and confront the truth, insisting that the conviction is built on manufactured insecurity without evidence, and the criminalisation of political dissent.
