From Okey Sampson, Umuahia and Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri

Family of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has denied any interference in the affairs of the pro-Biafra group.

Spokesman of the family, Emmanuel Kanu, who made this known against the backdrop of the faceoff that led to the suspension of the earlier pronounced weekly sit-at-home order, said what the family did was to follow already laid down rule and did not formulate its own.

Immediate younger brother of the IPOB leader, Kanunta, had penultimate week issued a directive suspending the every Mondays sit-at-home order, citing ongoing nationwide National Examination Council (NECO) examination and other things as reasons.

This did not go down well with some leaders of the pro-Biafra group who insisted the order must be carried out.

Emmanuel said there was no way the family could dabble into the affairs of IPOB, adding that what it did was to strengthen already laid down rule of the group.

“The family cannot dabble into IPOB issues, what we try to do is to obey the rule that had long been laid down. What I will like to make clear as an IPOB member is that before the extra-ordinary rendition of Kanu, there was already a laid down rule by IPOB which is under his command and control and nobody is exempted from that. Whatever they see play out, it is an established rule guiding IPOB.

“But I can understand people’s frustration, everybody wants him out immediately, and that is why you see that desperation in some people.

“What the family did with regard to the sit-at-home order was just to remind the IPOB leadership of an already established order and not trying to lord it over  them as some people may think.”

While saying the leadership of IPOB remains intact, Emmanuel commended it for what he described as the great job its doing.

“We are in is a win-win situation, our job is to make sure everything is in order, we are one indivisible family and so we’ll remain,” he said.

On the possibility of any dialogue with the Federal Government, Emmanuel said: “The position of the family is that whatever dialogue that will be taking place must be led by Kanu and he won’t be inside the prison; he can’t be in prison and we dialogue with anybody. First of all, he must be freed as a person and he can then lead whatever group that is going to do the dialoguing, that’s the position of the family.

“Dialogue is what they should have applied in the first place, although they attempted that in 2017 before they tried to kill him which led to what I may call his involuntary disappearance.”

Meanwhile, the Igbo National Movement (INM) has advised the pro-Biafran group to change their mode of operations if they wanted to achieve success in their quest for secession.

In a statement by the National Director of the group, Anthony Okolo, INM equally urged IPOB to collaborate and seek advise from other Igbo stakeholders before carrying out any action.

The group has advised IPOB to completely discard the sit-at-home order it recently limited to the appearance days of Kanu in court,insisting that the order will rather harm than doing any good to the people of the South East.

It recalled that the previous lockdown observed on Monday by the people had a bad effect on their business as well as lives.

“INM hereby calls on the proponents of the weekly sit-at-home campaigns to reassess their actions, retrace their steps, utterances and modus operandi and eventually be part of wider Igbo efforts at actualising self-determination.

“The current ‘Eze-onyeagbalam’ posture being displayed by the proponents of the sit-at-home is self-injurious, counter-productive and ultimately un-Igbo.,” he said.