The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has declared that the
conviction of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was based on what it described as
‘engineered insecurity’.
IPOB made the assertion in a statement by its spokesman,
Emma Powerful, on Wednesday. The pro-Biafra group noted that Kanu could not
have been responsible for the insecurity in the South-East while he was held in
solitary confinement, with no access to phone or the outside world.
IPOB blamed individuals it described as ‘desperate
political’ actors for the violence that rocked the South-East after Kanu’s
extraordinary rendition from Kenya, where he was arrested in 2021.
According to the statement, the insecurity was engineered to
frame Kanu and IPOB as terrorists, to pave way for his eventual conviction.
Parts of the statement, titled ‘Engineered insecurity and
judicial absurdity: How a man in solitary confinement was blamed for crimes he
could not have committed’, read, “The noble family of the Indigenous People of
Biafra (IPOB) draws the attention of Nigerians and the international community
to a dangerous lie that has been carefully constructed to justify the continued
detention and conviction of our leader.
“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.
“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.”
IPOB said it was shocking that the trial judge in Nnamdi
Kanu’s trial blamed him for insecurity in the South-East without any evidence.
The statement added, “Most shocking of all is what followed
in court. In his judgment, Omotosho 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 insisted that there is no evidence to tie Kanu to the
violence and killings blamed on him.
“Nobody has asked: Who did Mazi Nnamdi Kanu kill? Who came
to court to say Kanu killed their brother, sister, or parent? Where is the
evidence—bodies, witnesses, forensic proof? There is none. Absolutely none.
“Those who planned this deception did a thorough job. They
confused the public, silenced questions, and drowned the truth in propaganda.
But no lie lasts forever.
“If these Igbo politicians and their external sponsors had
been honest enough to admit that the insecurity story was deliberately created
just to jail Kanu, our leader would have willingly sacrificed himself if it
would have saved the innocent Biafrans who were killed simply to build a case
against him. Their blood cries out,” the group added.
IPOB called on the international community, foreign
governments and parliaments, human rights organisations, lawyers and judges of
conscience,
“to look beyond propaganda and confront the truth: this
conviction is built on manufactured insecurity, no evidence, and the
criminalisation of political dissent”.
“History will remember those who spoke the truth—and those
who used chaos to silence a man,” IPOB declared.
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