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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The family of convicted Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu has berated the military over a statement credited to Major General Michael Onoja.
Major General Onoja was quoted as recently claiming that “security has improved” in the South East as a result of intensified military operations and the imprisonment of Kanu.
In a statement signed by Prince Emmanuel Kanu, while bashing the military, the Kanu family said Onoja’s claim was not only mere falsehood, but a deliberate and cynical rewriting of history, which the family said amounted to an insult to every life destroyed by state violence in Nigeria.
The family said Onoja’s “fraudulent narrative” collapsed under one simple truth: that it was the Nigerian state that created the crisis it now pretends to be fighting.
“Long before anyone uttered the word ‘separatist’, the Nigerian military had already turned peaceful, unarmed citizens into targets.”
In buttressing his point, Prince Kanu gave instances of military arbitrariness, including the Nkpor massacre, in which peaceful mourners and demonstrators were gunned down.
“National High School, Aba, where unarmed young Judaic worshippers at a prayer meeting were rounded up and shot dead.
“President Trump Solidarity Rally 2017, Igweocha (Port Harcourt), which was another shoot-on-sight bloodbath.
“The invasion of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s home, where 28 people were killed, a family shattered and our parents traumatised into early graves.
“Shiite killings in Zaria (2015), where hundreds were massacred; Odi and Zaki-Biam, in which entire communities collectively were obliterated by the military.
“Lekki Toll Gate, unarmed protesters were shot dead under the cover of darkness, while the world watched.”
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The Kanu family reminded the military that these were not concocted stories, but documented atrocities.
“For the Nigerian military to now declare itself a ‘stabilising force’ is grotesque. The same institution that repeatedly opens fire on civilians cannot turn around and present itself as the guardian of peace.”
The family added that, rather than confront its own record, the Nigerian military reaches for IPOB and Kanu, the same overused and tired scapegoats.
“It was not IPOB that organised the cult wars, political militias, and criminal networks unleashed across Igboland to discredit ESN. Those were engineered and funded by politicians and security collaborators who found chaos politically profitable.
“Even retired General T.Y. Danjuma, himself not an activist nor IPOB member, openly accused elements of the Nigerian military of colluding with killers and turning their guns on innocent citizens. Is Michael Onoja more informed than Danjuma? Or simply more willing to lie?” the family queried.
Presenting what it said was the true picture, the Kanu family asked, “Does it mean Onoja doesn’t know that it was Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, through handwritten notes and repeated statements in court calling for calm, that calmed the fears?
“Security cannot be measured by silence created through fear, disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and military occupation. That is not peace, that is repression.”
The statement added that what the Nigerian military called “gains” were in reality communities terrorised into silence, courts manipulated to justify indefinite detention, and endless attempts to break Kanu’s spirit and force abandonment of the Biafra question, which it said would fail.
“The international community is increasingly aware that the Nigerian state frequently manufactures enemies to distract from corruption, insecurity, and elite failure.
“Canada, among others, understands perfectly well where the violence truly originates, and it is not from peaceful people demanding justice, it is not from Mazi Nnamdi Kanu or IPOB.”
The family said while it rejected Onoja’s narrative as dishonest, reckless, and historically illiterate, it insisted that their son must be released from prison.
