Peoples Democratic Party. PDP, stalwart and ex minster of Aviation Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has said that he has just received a call from Nnamdi Kanu the leaders of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB who on Friday was seen in Jerusalem in Israel praying.
Fani-Kayode in an email said
‘I just received a call from my brother Nnamdi Kanu. I am delighted that he is alive and well. I commend his strength and courage even as I marvel at the loyalty, resilience and commitment of his lawyer Ifeanyi Ejiofor and IPOB. We have agreed to work together to VOTE Buhari out.’
Kanu went missing in September last year after the military invaded his home in Abia state and there had not been any trace of him until now.
He was declared missing by his community in Abia state, after the alleged “Operation Python Dance II” operation by the Nigerian Army in the South East.
Many relatives of Kanu had also been allegedly declared missing by the Afara community in Umuahia following the invasion of his home by the Nigerian army.
A lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, who heads the legal team of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, said on Saturday that he has spoken with his client after a video clip of the IPOB leader praying in Jerusalem surfaced on the internet on Friday.
Ejiofor, in a statement on Saturday, confirmed that Kanu would address the public in a world press conference to be beamed live on Sunday to narrate “the shocking tale of how he made it alive”.
This came ahead of the November 14 scheduled for hearing in Kanu’s trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe and others who stood bail sureties for the IPOB leader in April last year, are expected to return to the court presided by Justice Binta Nyako to show cause why they should not be made to lose their N100m bail bonds which they entered into to secure Kanu’s bail, if they are unable to produce the IPOB leader.
Also, a former Governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, whom Ejiofor had caused to be summoned by the court for insisting that Kanu had escaped to London, is also expected in court at the next hearing date.
Kanu was being prosecuted by the Federal Government before the Federal High Court in Abuja before he went missing on September 14, 2017, following a military invasion of his home in Afara-Ukwu in Umuahia, Abia State.
The military invasion took place during the last year’s ‘Operation Python Dance II’ staged by the military to quell the agitation for the cessation of Republic of Biafra from Nigeria.
IPOB, had through a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, confirmed on Friday that the person seen in the video was its leader at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, where he joined other faithful to offer prayers.
AWKA – The Anambra Government has said that it will sanction staff of the civil service who fail to report to the office on May 30 in compliance with the IPOB sit at home order. IPOB members.
The directive for workers to return to work after may 29 Democracy Day celebration was contained in a circular issued from the office of Mr Harry Uduh, Head of Service in the state.
The government asked permanent secretaries and heads of departments and agencies to monitor the situation and report accordingly. According to the memo, the
“Governor of Anambra has directed that work resumes on Wednesday, 30th May after the Public Holiday on 29th May.
“All Public Servants must, therefore, report to their duty posts on Wednesday and the rest of the week.
“Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Ministries, Department and Agencies should monitor and report compliance unfailingly. Pls circulate to all your staff,” it said.
In a related development, C-Don Adinuba, Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment in Anambra, said the state government had not declared public holiday on May 30.
Adinuba, in a statement, therefore called on public servants therefore, to return to work.
“All Ndi Anambra are enjoined to freely engage in all their lawful businesses, without fear of molestation.
“Our state remains not only the safest but also the most peaceful and socially harmonious state in Nigeria,” he said.
NAN
Anxiety, panic and fears engulfed most parts of the Southeastern states yesterday ahead of today’s sit-at-home order issued by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in honour of Biafran heroes who died during the civil war and in the cause of the struggle for the restoration of Biafra state.
In Enugu State, there was heavy security presence in all the strategic points in the state capital, while fighter jets were hovering the state. Regardless, members of the Biafra Zionists Federation (BZF) have vowed to go ahead with their planned declaration of Biafra today.
The group spoke through its self-acclaimed President, Benjamin Onwuka.
He said:
“Fighter jets deployed by the Federal Government are hovering everywhere in Enugu State. The agenda is simple, to intimidate and instill fear in us and our members.
“But, we want to make it clear that we cannot be intimidated; that era is gone. Should anything happen to any of our members tomorrow (today), all those involved will pay dearly for it.
“Nigeria is already in panic. Buhari is in serious fear. You can see them flying fighter jets all over; this is what is called intimidation. They have failed.”
Meanwhile, the State Commissioner of Police, Danmallam Mohammed, has warned that the police will not tolerate any act or omission by any person or groups under any guise to disrupt the existing peace in the state.
The commissioner, in a statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Ebere Amaraizu, said:
“Any person or group of persons caught in any habit or omission capable of disrupting the existing peace in the state will be made to face the full weight of the law.”
The security around the government House, 82 Division of the Nigerian Army headquarters and state police headquarters have been heavily guarded with fierce-looking security operatives.
There were also fears and anxiety in Onitsha, the commercial hub of Anambra State, as IPOB had insisted there was no going on the call to remain indoors when they marched through the major streets and roads in Onitsha on Monday, instilling fear on residents and traders.
Daily Sun gathered that the Onitsha main market witnessed a crowd of people rushed to make last-minute purchase for fear of what may happen today.
A market leader in Anambra State, who did not want his name in prints, said:
“We are going to open our markets and traders should open their shops for business. There is no way the pro-Biafra group will force us to close our businesses, because they are doing anniversary.”
A trader Mr. John Nwokedi said he will not come out today due for fear of the unknown as he recalled past experience where some hoodlums seized the opportunity to loot and attack people who opened their shops for business.
A commercial driver Mr. Emeka Odim said:
“I’m going to obey the sit-at-home order; I’m not going to bring my vehicle out tomorrow (today) because I am a Biafran, and I believe in civil disobedience to tell our leaders in this country that we are not one and they should allow us to go.”
Meanwhile, the leadership of IPOB in Ebonyi State, yesterday, dared the Governor David Umahi and vowed to implement today’s sit-at-home order in all parts of the state.
Deputy Coordinator of Biafra agitators in the state, Mr. Ugochukwu Nweke, made the avowal while reacting to the state government’s directive on the people of the state to ignore the order.
At a press briefing, on Monday, Governor Umahi’s Senior Special Assistant on Internal Security, Dr. Kenneth Ugbala, warned that shop owners who obey the order would have to forfeit their shops forever, as the government would take over such shops. He said the state government would not tolerate any plot to sabotage its efforts in ensuring the peace and safety of its people.
Similarly, Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, has warned that any civil servant in the state who obeys the sit-at-home order by failing to be on his or her duty post today will be sanctioned.
Consequently, he has directed Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Departments and Agencies to monitor the attendance to duty of the workers today and report accordingly.
But, IPOB leadership in Ebonyi State wrote off the state government’s threat.
It said:
“Our activities will go on tomorrow (today) as planned all over the world, not only here, in Ebonyi. The government has no right, whatsoever, to takeover anybody’s shop on the grounds of closing their shops to obey the sit-at-home order.”
Regardless, Owerri, the Imo State capital, was calm yesterday ahead of today’s sit-at-home order. When Daily Sun monitored the situation in Owerri, yesterday, residents went about their lawful businesses as usual. On May 22, members of Movement for the Actualisation for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Biafra Independent Movement (BIM) had celebrated their own Biafra day with a street march. However, many members of the two groups were arrested by security agencies, but were later released.
Meanwhile, the Anambra State Police Command yesterday said the police and other security agents are battles ready to deal decisively with any pro-Biafra group that tries to disrupt the peace of the citizens today.
The Commissioner of Police in the State, Mr. Garba Baba Umar, in a statement, urged the people to disregard alleged the sit-at-home order and go about their lawful businesses.
He said:
“For the avoidance of doubt IPOB is still a proscribed organisation, hence, all its activities remains illegal.
“The command will, therefore, not hesitate to deal decisively with, in accordance with the law, any individual or groups, under any guise, that will disrupt public peace in the state.”
Source
Sun News
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has stated that the Igbos were already observing the Wednesday’s sit-at-home order.
This is contained in a statement issued Tuesday night by IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful.
He advised members of the public to shun the existence of a “non-existent and wholly fictitious IPOB National Secretariat” which advised people in the South-East region to ignore its directive.
Powerful said:
“We hereby warn the public to disregard such statements because they were fabricated by DSS and Lai Mohammed’s Ministry of Information to sow seeds of confusion in the minds of Biafrans who have started observing the order to sit at home from this evening.
“Enemies of Biafra in the north and traitors in Biafraland think that such childish gimmicks will sway the cast iron determination of Biafrans to observe the sit-at-home order as directed by our Directorate of State.
“For purposes of clarity, IPOB does not operate a national secretariat formula. What we have is the Directorate of State (DOS) of the Indigenous People of Biafra headed by Mazi Chika Edoziem.
“Every IPOB family member knows there is nothing like a ‘national secretariat’ in IPOB structure, so those behind this latest gimmick are wasting their time and will end up making a mockery of themselves.
“No amount of subterfuge, betrayal, treachery or outright sabotage by criminal elements set up by DSS calling themselves Biafra Coalition will derail our collective effort to honour our heroes with a sit at home.
“What this act of desperation confirms is that IPOB is on the right track as always and Nigeria jittery because despite Operation Python Dance that cost millions of dollars to execute, IPOB is today more formidable than ever.”
“We expect more outlandish statements from the defeated reprobates within Nigerian government and their agents in Biafraland but their antics doesn’t faze IPOB anymore. We are IPOB and 30th of May sit-at-home directive is sacrosanct,”
he said in the statement made available to Colossus Gists.
There was tension in Enugu and other major cities in the South-East on Monday over the planned celebration of the Biafra Day on Wednesday (today).
One of our correspondents in Enugu observed that many residents are worried over the possible breakdown of law and order on the day.
There are also concerns over possible clashes between pro-Biafran activists and security agents, a situation which residents fear could lead to the loss of innocent lives and destruction of property.
Feelers from other states in the zone also indicate a similar disposition among residents.
Pro-Biafran groups, including the Indigenous People of Biafra and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, called for the sit-at-home protest in order to celebrate the anniversary of the defunct Republic of Biafra on May 30, the date the breakaway state declared independence from Nigeria in 1967.
In 2017, the event was marked with a sit-at-home protest ordered by IPOB, which grounded commercial activities in major cities in the zone, as well as Port Harcourt, in Rivers State, and Asaba, in Delta State.
IPOB has again ordered a sit-at-home protest to mark this year’s ‘Biafra Day’, but the other major pro-Biafran groups have different plans.
MASSOB intends to commemorate the anniversary with lectures and a candlelight procession, while the Biafra Zionists Federation has announced plans to raise the flag of the defunct Republic of Biafra at the Enugu State Government House on that day.
In a bid to avert a possible breakdown of law and order, the troops of the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army have engaged in a ‘massive show of force’ by parading through major cities in the geopolitical zone in a long convoy of military vehicles.
Men of the 553 Base Services Group, Nigeria Airforce, Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Services and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps are participating in the show of force.
The Deputy Director, Public Relations, 82 Division, Col. Sagir Musa, explained that the parade of the heavily armed troops was “purely a show of force, aimed at sending a clear message to individuals or groups who intend to cause a breakdown of law and order.”
Musa added, “Law-abiding members of the public are enjoined not to worry about seeing a long convoy of military and paramilitary vehicles and equipment on selected locations across the South-East zone.”
The Enugu State Police Command has also declared its readiness to engage the pro-Biafran agitators.
On May 22, 32 members of the Biafra Independence Movement faction of MASSOB, who were marking their own ‘Biafra Day,’ were arrested while they were about to embark on a parade through Enugu metropolis.
The activists are currently in prison custody, having been remanded after they were arraigned before a magistrate court.
But the pro-Biafran groups have vowed to go ahead with their plans for the Biafra Day.
IPOB has vowed that the South-East and the South-South, as well as other states marked out for the exercise, would be locked down on Wednesday, May 30th.
The secessionist group said nothing would stop the sit-at-home protest.
The group has urged every family, kindred, village, clan and town in the South-East and the other designated areas to remain indoors from 6 pm on Tuesday, May 29, to 6 pm on May 30.
IPOB has warned the army and the police against interfering with the exercise.
“It will be crass insensitivity of the highest order for any police or army officer in the South-East to intrude upon our grief,” IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, said in a statement.
The Biafra Zionists Federation, on the other hand, has vowed that ‘not even fighter jets’ would stop the plan to raise the Biafran flag at the Enugu State Government House on May 30.
The group, led by Mr. Benjamin Onwuka, a lawyer, had attempted to declare the ‘independence’ of Biafra in the past.
Onwuka was detained, and charged with treason, after leading some members of the BZF to invade the studios of Enugu State Broadcasting Service in a failed bid to announce the secession of Biafra on June 5, 2014.
A policeman was killed during the incident.
In July 2017, having been released from detention, he named himself ‘Interim President of Biafra’, and appointed some prominent Nigerians, including an economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, and former information ministers, Jerry Gana and Labaran Maku, as members of the Biafran cabinet.
Onwuka has urged ‘Biafrans’ to ignore IPOB’s sit-at-home protest.
Rather, he urged them to converge on the Enugu Government House to witness the raising of the Biafran flag.
The spokesman for the Enugu State Police Command, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, told one of our correspondents on Monday that the police had taken note of Onwuka’s comments, as well as IPOB’s declarations.
Amaraizu said the police are ready for the secessionists.
“We are ready for them,” he said.
But MASSOB and other pro-Biafran group have insisted that despite the influx of security men into the South-East, the groups will mark the 51st anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of Biafra on May 30.
The groups said that no amount of intimidation by the security agencies would deter their members from going on with the planned anniversary.
A statement on Monday signed by MASSOB leader, Madu, Felix Anochirimonye of the Eastern People’s Congress, Rita Anibuogu of the Movement of Biafrans in Nigeria and Innocent Amadi for Bile Human Rights Initiative, said that the celebration would start on May 29 with a candlelight procession.
His Excellency Governor Willie Obiano learnt with regret and emotion the news of the passing of Ogbueshi Joseph (Hannibal) Achuzia, Ikemba Asaba after a bout of illness.
This is the passing of a legend and a patriot of the highest order. A man of service and deep convictions whose exploits in the sands of time can never be forgotten by our people, both young and old. His Excellency recalls his personal sacrifices at trouble shooting in Igboland and the well being of our people in war and in peace.
On behalf of the people and Government of Anambra State, Governor Obiano commiserates with his brother, the Governor of Delta H.E. Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, the Asagba in Council, Ohaneze Ndigbo and Nigerians on this monumental loss.
May his soul rest in peace
Ogbuefi Tony Nnachetta
Honourable Commissioner for Information and Strategy
ABUJA – A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed an application filed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) seeking to compel the Chief of Army staff to produce the missing leader of the group, Nnamdi Kanu.
The trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako also over-ruled the appeal for lack of merit and proof, that the chief of army staff was indeed the last person seen with mister Nnamdi Kanu.
Counsel to IPOB, Ifeanyi Ejiofor had prayed the court to order the Chief of Army staff to produce his client claiming that no member of Kanu’s family had seen or heard from him since September 14th, 2017.
Opposing the motion, however, General Buratai through his counsel, Akinlolu Kehinde, told the court that Kanu was not and had never been in the custody of the Nigerian army.
Ejiofor on October 17 during the trial told the court that he is looking for his client. He said he has filed a suit asking the court to compel the Nigerian Army to produce the leader of IPOB alleging that his disappearance is unconnected with the invasion of his home by the Nigerian Army on September 11, 2017. – CHANNELS TV
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