By Sunday Ani
A human rights advocate, Mikar Ojokoro, has condemned threats and defamatory comments against the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s legal counsel, Ifeanyichukwu Ejiofor, by a Finland based Youtube blogger, Simon Ekpa, describing it as offensive and unacceptable.
In a statement by Ojokoro which was made available to Daily Sun, he accused Ekpa of dishing out tissues of lies on social media through his blog about Ejiofor and the IPOB leader for the purpose of maligning Kanu and his legal team.
Ojokoro described Ejiofor as a brilliant and courageous lawyer, who has been endangering his own life defending Kanu and thousands of Igbo young men and women wrongly incarcerated or unlawfully imprisoned for identifying with Biafra and wondered why Ekpa and his cohorts would be threatening that Ejiofor must go down.
The rights advocate also decried the attitude of some Igbo who, instead of condemning what Ekpa was doing were rather clapping for him, saying, “Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor and his team of lawyers have been defending Mazi Kanu and thousands of others identified as Biafrans in cases which most lawyers in Nigeria would not want to touch for fear of being targeted by the Nigerian government forces. There is video evidence and court judgments to show that Ejiofor and many of his clients who have been identified as indigenous persons of Biafra have been victims of police brutality on many occasions. The most recent lethal invasion of Ejiofor’s residence at night time shortly before Kanu was kidnapped left many with the conclusion that the attack was meant to scare away other lawyers from defending Kanu if Ejiofor is out of the way.
“With all these, I find the action of some gullible Igbo who are clapping over the threat against Ejiofor as very offensive and unacceptable. Are some Igbo persons this fickle minded and capricious with no emotional intelligence to decode a series of inconsistent lies and deceptions being sold to them by Ekpa? How can people be this childishly excited over an empty decorated head? How can people be alive with no discerning mind of their own? God forbids; but I refuse to associate myself with such a sickening set of human beings.”
He also stated that Ekpa has been planning to displace Kanu and take over the leadership of IPOB. According to him, he has been launching vitriolic attacks on Kanu to achieve this singular purpose, but lamented that only the gullible would not see the deceit and lies in the information he has been dishing out. “Simon Ekpa has been laying the foundation to attack Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and he is already doing so in such a constructive reversed psychology by a number of his broadcast on his YouTube platform, where he said that Kanu was going to end up like Ralph Uwazurike and that he is the better anointed David than Kanu, whom he labeled as Saul. He also boasted that he has done what Kanu has never done and that Kanu needs him more than he needs him.
Ojokoro recalled how Ekpa insulted the Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Rev. Dr. Enoja, who had, through his spokesperson tried to call Ekpa to order over the senseless and criminal enforcement of sit at home which Kanu had ordered from DSS detention that it should stop. “Instead, Ekpa boasted that he cannot take orders from anyone in DSS custody and that his own version of IPOB called Autopilot was the original one,” he said.
Ojokoro stated that Kanu has been in unlawful detention for more than18 months, lamenting that Ekpa has been cashing in on Kanu’s ordeal to spew unfounded lies against him. “And anybody that tries to call him to order is instantly labelled as a traitor who sold Kanu,” he added.
He, therefore, warned agitators of Oduduwa Republic, like respected Prof Banji Akintoye and Dr. Synday Adeyemo, to be very careful in dealing with some persons that parade themselves as autopilots and Biafra spokesmen, adding, “Such ecto-parasitic names and positions only exist in the criminal world but non-existent in the actual Biafra independence restoration movement (IPOB) led by Kanu. Get this fact now.”
Accusing Ekpa of deceiving the teeming Igbo population that believe in the realization of Biafra Republic, Ojokoro said: “Biafra is not ‘Awuru-Awu/Kparakpo Umunna’ village meeting. Therefore, when someone says that Biafra would come in 122 days’ time or less, I will be a fool if I don’t have the inherent responsibility to ask the person how that would happen, the strategy, and the process. This does not mean that we don’t believe in miracles or understand the things of the spirit; yes, we do but that is not the issue here. Ekpa cannot be claiming that he would bring Biafra to reality in 122 days, and at the same time calling for a conference to teach the Biafrans how to seek asylum in a foreign land; that is insanity,” he submitted.
He accused Ekpa of launching a campaign of calumny and character assassination on the person of IPOB leader, saying “He has been using his YouTube channel to tell the Igbo that they should stop contributing money to IPOB but to him as there are no more monthly dues to IPOB. He also told them to stop going to IPOB meetings and stop listening to Radio Biafra but to his blogger, stressing that the DOS are illiterate criminals and ‘Ndi Nzama’ career agitators who sold Kanu.”
According to Ojokoro, Ekpa was quoted to have said in his YouTube channel: “We have sacked DOS; Ejiofor and the legal team have compromised. Both Ejiofor and DOS are working for the Nigerian Government. We don’t take orders from anyone in the DSS dungeon, referring to Kanu and mocking Kanu’s orders to stop the sit at home.”
Ojokoro also stated that Ekpa has some questions to answer regarding the abduction and rendition of Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria last year. He said: “Ekpa and his former partner, Nelly Oforegbu are quick to accuse anyone, who challenges them or who does not agree with them about betraying Kanu to the Nigerian Government. This has become a song for Ekpa and a daily topic that drives internet traffic on his YouTube platform. Ekpa and his cohorts are deliberately engaged in this distraction to divert attention from their own criminalities. Ekpa and his cohorts are the ones actually culpable, but have remained the unaddressed prime suspects of what happened to Kanu during pre-Kenya, in Kenya and post-Kenya times. We began to hear about autopilots from Ekpa and his cohorts immediately after Kanu was kidnapped and returned to Nigeria. It is one of their strategies to destroy Kanu as a judas but self acclaimed disciple,” he said.
Ojokoro, however, said a few defamation suits would soon be filed in the courts against Ekpa and his co-traducers, to bring their senses to normal once again.
