Ipob claims federal government offered Nnamdi Kanu monetary and property inducements

SECESSIONIST group the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) has claimed that its leader Nnamdi Kanu is still being held by the Nigerian government because he has refused to accept monetary and property inducements to abandon the cause.

Highly controversial, Mr Kanu has been campaigning for the recreation of the independent republic of Biafra which broke away from Nigeria between July 1967 and January 1970 during the civil war. His campaign, which has led to the phenomenal growth of Ipob, has set him at odds with the Nigerian government who him arrested and put on trial for treason.

While the case was still pending, Mr Kanu was granted bail in April 2017 on health grounds but skipped his bail after flouting the conditions given to him by the court and fled Nigeria. In a dramatic development, however, in June last year, Mr Kanu was abducted in Kenya and deported to Nigeria in a highly efficient military operation.

Speaking about his ordeal, Mr Kanu said he was arrested by mercenaries, who detained him for eight days in Kenya, subjecting him to torture before deporting him illegally to Nigeria. His trial has since resumed and the matter is causing great embarrassment to the government as Ipob organises well-observed sit-at-home protests every week, showing how popular Mr Kanu is.

According to Ipob spokesman, Emma Powerful, because Mr Kanu has refused to be bribed, the federal government is continuing to hold him in the hope that while he is in detention, they will be able to infiltrate the group and destroy it from within. He added that the federal government is very much annoyed with Mr Kanu for refusing to accept monetary and property inducements.

Mr Powerful said: “The attention of the global movement and family of the Indigenous People of Biafra has been drawn to the secret plans by the Buhari government and his Fulani kinsmen to illegally detain our leader Nnamdi Kanu for as long as possible. Their annoyance with our leader is his blunt refusal to take properties and monetary inducement offered him to abandon the struggle for Biafra liberation.

“The federal government decided to hold our leader indefinitely to see if it can possibly infiltrate the ranks of our great movement and destroy it from inside while our leader is in custody. The federal government is also relying on the promise by some traitors and black sheep in America and Europe that they would assist it to realise the evil plot.

"A promise was made to the federal government during their secret visit to Aso Rock last December. We are also aware that the federal government has been lobbying the international community to enlist their support against Biafra liberation but they won’t succeed.

"Therefore, anybody distracting or causing division in the Ipob family is a tool knowingly or unknowingly working for the Federal Government of Nigeria. The fact remains that Biafra is a divine project, it has gone beyond any single individual, including our leader.

"Millions of the oppressed Biafran youths home and abroad are now more aware and conscious than ever. It’s only a matter of time as Biafra must come. It can only be delayed but certainly not suppressed.”