Our leader can’t be re-arrested -IPOB

The Indigenous People of Biafra, has told security agencies in the country that its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, can’t be re-arrested because he has not flouted his bail conditions.

It added that Kanu had neither held any rally nor protested as instructed by the court, thus, he had not gone beyond the limit set by the court.

Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja, had, while granting Kanu bail on April 25, 2017, ordered him not to grant press interviews, he should not participate in any rally and should stay away from any gathering of more than 10 persons.

But the IPOB leader had in recent days met and addressed large gatherings, and reportedly granted interviews to some foreign news organisations.

The development had led to calls, from some quarters, for security agencies to re-arrest Kanu on the grounds of violation of bail conditions.

In addition, Saturday PUNCH had exclusively reported on June 3, 2017 that the Federal Government might ask the court to revoke his bail on grounds of alleged breach of the bail conditions granted him in April. Top sources in the Federal Ministry of Justice had said that alleged breaches of the bail conditions by Kanu were being noted and might be used to ask the court to revoke his bail.

But IPOB, in response to enquiries by Saturday PUNCH on Friday, said Kanu had not violated the bail conditions given to him by the court.

IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, told our correspondent that those who had been converging in thousands on Kanu’s father’s house in Umuahia, Abia State, came to see the IPOB leader on their own volition and that he could not send his visitors away, neither would he decide not to receive them.

Powerful said, “Nnamdi Kanu never flouted his bail conditions because the court said he should not go for rallies or protests and he has never done that since his release. But citizens of Biafra and other parts of Nigeria want to see him, that is why you see him with people and these people come to his father’s house. He cannot chase those who want to see him away. Since his release he never called for any rally or protest or press conference.

“Don’t you know that if he wants to call the press he will call both local and international media? The court did not bar people from visiting him in his father’s compound. The court did not say he should not visit anyone in the society. Therefore, the security operatives have no justification to re-arrest him because he has never gone beyond their limit or held any rally or protest.”

 “We are aware that anywhere he visited, people just gather to see who he is in person and he did not put himself in the position he is today – it is by the making of the Most High in Heaven. We wonder why people who fear his electrifying popularity are calling for his arrest – we know that the Nigerian government and her security agencies always like to intimidate people.”

The IPOB spokesman said the secessionists were not calling for war but it would only advance its demand for Biafra through civil disobedience and peaceful rallies and protests.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )