Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has given the Department of State Services (DSS) 48 hours to release Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe.

It said if Abaribe’s arrest by DSS was simply by standing surety for its leader, Nnamdi Kanu and for allegely supporting IPOB, then all those who stood surety for murderers, kidnappers and rapists are equally guilty of the offence as charged.

IPOB said the move against Abaribe by DSS makes a nonsense of the Nigerian judicial process and mockery of the law, wondering if standing surety for an individual is tantamount to supporting that person’s cause?
The group said: “So, Abaribe must be released within the next 48 hours, and if he is not released before 6:00p.m. today, IPOB will call for a day of rage against the fascist government of Nigeria and its agents in the South East and South South. Let Britain and the rest of the civilised world not say they were not warned.”
Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Emma Powerful, in a statement, yesterday, said the only plausible reason Abaribe was arrested was because of his alleged public exposure of N30 billion budget fraud perpetrated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, and added that no amount of blackmail will ever eradicate the truth.

“To link Abaribe to the fanciful concoction of proscribed organisation, guns and terrorism is a cheap and tacky attempt, designed to appeal to the base instinct of those core northerners opposed to the idea of self-determination as championed by IPOB.

“It is a well known and documented fact that politicians in the East do not support IPOB or Biafra. This is well known to everyone. How can the same politicians who despised IPOB to the point of instigating Operation Python Dance, which resulted in the death of hundreds of IPOB family members, suddenly turn around and start supporting IPOB in secret. The strength of IPOB lies in the truth it preaches, it is global structure, internal discipline and the grace of God not man.

“This is not the first time the government has sought to tamper with a judicial process. Abaribe is due in court on Tuesday, June 26, 2018, on bond forfeiture hearing before Justice Binta Nyako, so, why arresting him before his day in court? Is it because the government is seeking to protect the army that, in all probability, will be found in contempt of court, for invading the home of Kanu on September 14, 2017, with lethal force, weeks before his appearance in court, in Abuja. These are well digested facts in public domain, supported by video evidence. No amount of intimidation by DSS can sweep this incriminating fact under the carpet.

“Our leader has always said every South East and South South politician serving Nigeria will return home in shame, unless they turn around, now, and start campaigning for self-determination. We are certain that if not for the immunity conferred on his office, Governor Nyesom Wike, by now, will be in detention answering to one frivolous charge or the other,” Powerful said.