…Blames UK Govt for continued detention of IPOB leader
• IPOB berates Imo police, insists ESN has no camp in Okigwe
From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The family of detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has accused the United Kingdom Government of being responsible for the non-release of their son by the Federal Government.
Speaking over the phone, the spokesman of the family and Nnamdi’s younger brother, Emmanuel Kanu, said that the United Kingdom being docile over the IPOB leader’s case has emboldened the Nigerian Government to continue the incarceration of his brother even when he was supposed to have been freed.
“The UK Government is adopting the same tactics it put in place against the Igbo during the Nigeria/Biafra war when it gave every assistance and support to the Nigerian Government against the perishing Biafra civilians,” he claimed.
When asked what the UK Government did to prove it was against the release of the IPOB leader, he said: “Nnamdi Kanu is a British citizen, ever since he was extra-judicially renditioned to Nigeria from Kenya, the UK Government has not said anything despite the fact his arrest did not follow international law.
“Again, Nnamdi Kanu was set free by the Appeal Court in Abuja, from all the charges preferred against him by the Nigerian Government, yet they kept him in detention and the British Government did not say or do anything.”
The family said that it has been forced to bring the dilly-dallying of the UK Government in the Kanu’s case to the fore so that the world would know the apparent nonchalant attitude of the UK Government towards one of her own citizens.
His words: “The family of Nnamdi Kanu has watched with studied silence over the years the action of the UK Government in the case of our brother and her citizen, Nnamdi Kanu, and came to the conclusion that the UK Government has not done anything to get one of hers who is unjustly incarcerated in Nigeria released.
“We have, therefore, decided not to be keeping quiet again, but to let the world know that the British Government has not done what it ought to protect the rights of one of her citizens, Nnamdi Kanu, who is unjustly being incarcerated in Nigeria.”
The family said that Britain was not acting in this case probably because Kanu is a black man.
Also, the IPOB yesterday debunked claims by the Imo State Police Command that they have cleared the camp of IPOB/ESN operatives in Umulolo in Okigwe and Owerri environs of the state.
The group in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said that the agencies cannot continue to claim ignorance of IPOB’s repeated disassociation with the criminals operating around the Okigwe and Owerri axis.
“We understand that the Nigerian Police are working with the agent provocateurs to blackmail IPOB. But we are always ahead of their games.
“In our previous press releases, we have called out the criminals and agent provocateurs heavily funded by the Imo State governor and some politicians and businessmen and women, who operate camps at Umulolo and other parts of Okigwe LGA in Imo State.
“We have publicly condemned the camp and activities of the criminals working with the government’s double agent in Finland. Hope Uzodinma is funding those criminals to blackmail Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB to please his Fulani masters. Their plans have been exposed time and time again.
“For emphasis sake, ESN does not have any camp at the following communities: Okigwe, Mbaitolu, Arindizogu, Orsuihiteukwa, Ihitenansa Imo State. Also, we do not have camps in Orsumoghu, Lilu, Ukpor, Ezinifite Nnewi, Unubi, Akwaihedi, Umunze, Isseke, Mbosi, Ihiala, Azia, Okija, and Uga Anambra State.
“Any group operating any camp in the above-mentioned areas and communities are not ESN operatives. They are either organized criminal gangs or agent provocateurs working with the government’s double agent in Finland. The Nigerian government and her fraudulent security agencies know the truth, but chose to blackmail IPOB/ESN,” IPOB said.
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