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The spokesperson of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Emma Powerful, has insisted that Biafra is not seceding, but only fighting for the restoration of its nation through peaceful protests.
In a telephone interview with News24 Nigeria on Tuesday, Powerful denied that IPOB had plans to use violence to get its demands met, and called for the immediate release of Nnamdi Kanu.
Kanu and two others have been charged with treason and other related offences on account of his agitation for the secession of the South-East and other areas of the country to form a sovereign state of Biafra.
Kanu is the face of IPOB and creator of Radio Biafra.
Powerful denied that Kanu had apologized to President Muhammadu Buhari, as reports recently indicated.
“I want the world and the international community to tell Buhari to release Nnamdi Kanu immediately. He did not do anything wrong,” Powerful said.
Powerful threatened that if anything happened to Kanu, who is said to be ill and has no access to medical care, there won’t be peace in Nigeria.
“Nnamdi Kanu is our Moses, he is the one leading us out of this zoo, presently he is locked up in prison, he is sick, but has no access to medical care, I am calling on the international community to tell them that if anything happens to him, Nigeria will know no peace.
We will not physically fight Nigeria, but we will protest, till they have arrested or shot everybody. How many of us can they arrest or shoot?,” said Powerful.
Powerful laid support to Kanu’s categorization of Nigeria as a zoo. He said the regular Boko Haram killings in the North-eastern part of the country, and president Buhari’s support to have Kanu remanded in prison even after the court granted him bail, were some of the reasons why Nigeria could be referred to as a zoo.
According to reports, Kanu confirmed in a statement dated October 24, 2015 that he called Nigeria a zoo to justify his belief that the only language its people understood was violence.
Powerful said there was an imbalance in the structure of Nigeria, with most eastern states having a less number of local governments compared to the northern states.
He said the eastern and south-south states were marginalized, and treated as “fools”.
He vowed that the restoration of Biafra would put an end to the imbalance, “because a nation will be born”.
“We are doing all of this for our children. Our people are being caged and we will not stop until Biafra is realized”
He said that the Nigeria state expired in 2014, echoing what the country’s colonial masters, Great Britain, said several years ago – that Nigeria will last for 100 years.
