Prince Emma Kanu is the younger brother of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu. In this interview with OKEY SAMPSON, he re-echoed the position of his elder brother, Nnamdi Kanu that nobody can stop the actualization of the State of Biafra.
Government says IPOB is proscribed, yet it appears to be waxing stronger every other day, what’s the magic wand?
It is rather laughable that people or the government so to speak can proscribe IPOB when the group is not involved in arms struggle. You didn’t proscribe your people, the herdsmen, the bandits as you call them and you look at a noble movement like IPOB to proscribe them. To me, it sounds very stupid, that’s how I look at it. No sane human being will even attempt proscribing such an honourable movement anywhere in the world. It’s an attack against Biafran people and we understand it very well.
Abia police command said IPOB is a proscribed organization and anybody associating with it will be treated as a terrorist. How do you react to this?
Make no mistake; the commissioner of police is here to make money for himself and his family. The other day, we saw the police, army, in fact the other security agencies in the state patrolling just 100 metres away from our house. Now, what I’m beginning to understand is either the CP calls Abuja and tells Abuja look, there is need to fund Abia State because there is crisis and that is what I call extortion because as far as we are concerned, there is no war in Isiama Afara Ukwu where Nnamdi Kanu comes from, not even in Abia State or in the wider Biafra land. So, why this intimidation, why moving from one street to another all in the name of what? Just to extort money from the Federal Government. So, I’m here to advise them, given that the government has excess money, they should channel their resources or money to the North where there are crisis, not in the Eastern region because we don’t have any. There is no need for show of force because we don’t have time, all we want is Biafra; we will never carry arms and under their watch, they will see Biafra emerge.
As far as the Abia CP is concerned, there is nothing like Biafra, where do you place this assertion?
The thing is to find out where the young man, the CP comes from. If he is from Cross River as they said, then long before now, was there anything like Cross River? Does Cross River make sense to him? Look at the history, if he is a Nigerian and not a Biafran, is there any link between him and the Fulani or the Yoruba, the answer is no. Does the mother tie two wrappers, the answer is yes, so, we are all Biafrans. I think he has been brainwashed by one or two persons in the Caliphate; but as bright and educated as he is, I think he should go back and look at history.
How do you react to the police threat of categorizing anybody that identifies with IPOB a terrorist?
How do you identify a terrorist and what makes one a terrorist? It is when you do arms struggle, when you kill for one particular interest, but this is not the case with IPOB. How would you say anybody associated with IPOB is a terrorist? Is Nnamdi Kanu a terrorist? So, which means he (CP) is also a terrorist because he is a Biafran because he is an indigenous person. If I am a terrorist, he is also a terrorist. So, who is benefiting? The Caliphate, as simple as that.
How come a CP as educated as he is, understands what is going on in this country presently as we speak, has the gut to call us terrorists. How about those in the North, the Boko Haram, the herdsmen, the bandits, what are they called? Do we (IPOB) kill? The answer is no; do we ask anybody to kill for us? The answer is no. So, how can he call us terrorists? Is it because we are Biafrans? If you are not a Biafran, you are Oduduwa or Arewa. So, Arewa cannot call us terrorists neither Oduduwa. Tell the CP to take the message to his village that he is a Biafran. He should ask people like (General) Philip Effiong, he should tell him better that we are all Biafrans and he can not take that away from us.
Police say Nnamdi Kanu will be arrested any day he steps into Abia, what would you say about this?
He is hallucinating, that’s what the CP is doing. He should go back and sleep and sleep well, do his job and retire and go back to his village. He should again take this particular matter to his kinsmen and ask them if Nnamdi Kanu is a terrorist; they are in a better position to tell him, whatever they tell him, that he can believe. Bring one strong evidence to convict Nnamdi Kanu. I will ask him to come back and face prosecution. Ask him what has he against Kanu as a terrorist, has he any evidence, any single evidence? The answer is no.
So, what has Nnamdi Kanu done wrong? He is not Osama bin Laden, he is not Shekarau, he is not a head of a terrorist movement, he is not a member of ISIS, so, what stops the CP from going to the North to fight the terrorist. IPOB is here to defend the CP and not the other way round. The CP should go back to his kinsmen for proper education; perhaps he was born in the North, trained there, that is why he has a lot of misinformation. But as our brother, the CP should come, let’s work together and liberate ourselves.