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From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has dismissed as “dead on arrival” a document purporting to reappoint Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor as its external solicitor, insisting he remains sacked by the group’s Supreme Leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
In a statement issued yesterday by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, the movement said the letter being circulated by Ejiofor was signed by Chika Edoziem and other members of the dissolved 3rd Directorate of State, who, IPOB said, were expelled and “are no longer members of the IPOB family.”
“Expelled elements cannot hire or reinstate a lawyer under the name and authority of the very movement they were excommunicated from. That piece of paper is not only unethical, it is dead on arrival,” Powerful stated.
The statement noted that IPOB’s Code of Conduct, Section II, Subsection A, vests sole authority to appoint, suspend, or dismiss officers, including legal representatives, in Kanu, unless he expressly delegates that power.
“Kanu sacked Ifeanyi Ejiofor, and he remains sacked. The Supreme Leader expelled Chika Edoziem and others in the dissolved 3rd DOS. They remain expelled. A gang-up of sacked and disgruntled elements does not constitute a leadership structure of IPOB,” the spokesperson said.
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The statement also accused Ejiofor of professional negligence that contributed to Kanu’s continued detention. IPOB alleged he failed to file a preliminary objection to a stay of execution filed by former Attorney General Abubakar Malami, and that his actions during trial proceedings amounted to “sabotage and compromise.”
Powerful further rejected Ejiofor’s claim that his sack letter was unauthenticated, saying it was “properly notarised before a lawyer in Sokoto.”
IPOB said Ejiofor is free to represent any other group, but not the Indigenous People of Biafra.
The statement concluded by reaffirming loyalty to Kanu and to what it called the “4th Directorate of State,” and warned it was prepared to meet Ejiofor in court over the use of IPOB’s name.
“Let it be known that whatever deal Ifeanyi Ejiofor may have allegedly wrought with the Nigerian Government to divide IPOB and destabilise our leadership is dead on arrival,” the statement read.
