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Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has asked the United States and UK to intervene on the arrest of 70 members of his group in Imo State.
Operatives of Imo State Police Command and officers of the 34 Artillery Brigade Obinze in Owerri, Wednesday said they arrested 67 IPOB members who were on their way to a 68-year-old native doctor, Mr. Cyprian Amadi’s home at Abashieke Egbema in Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of the state.
Isaac Akinmoyede, the state Commissioner of Police, had described their movement as an unlawful assembly, alleging that the group was planning attack on security agencies in order to collect their guns. He said they will be charged to court as soon as investigation was concluded.
But in a letter addressed to the two countries’ high commission in Nigeria, the proscribed IPOB group’s leader accused the government of deliberately provoking his members in the state, stating that such action was unacceptable
According to the letter sent through Emma Powerful, IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Kanu said if such provocation leads the Biafrans to resort to self-help, the state governor, Sen. Hope Uzodinma and the state Commissioner of Police, should be blamed.
“We wish to draw the attention of the creator of Nigeria, the Almighty Great Britain through the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, UK in Nigeria, the US State Department through U.S. Mission Nigeria, to the deliberate and orchestrated provocations/actions of the government against peaceful Biafrans,’ the letter reads.
“Without provocation and having not committed any crime known to law, a group of Biafrans numbering over 70 were arrested, humiliated and detained by Isaac Olutayo Akinmoyede, Police Commissioner in Imo State.
“Despite the daily carnage and mayhem in Imo State by herdsmen, no one has been arrested and detained in the police custody.
“Police are yet to arrest or parade suspects involved in the killings and destruction of farmlands in the State.
“This same police had the temerity to detain innocent people going about their business because they are Biafrans.
“Is the state governor and commissioner for police saying that Biafrans can be arrested at will even when no crime has been committed but herdsmen are free to roam and kill at will. This level of provocation is unacceptable. If and when Biafran people decide to take matters into their own hands, let it be on record that the duo caused it. Peaceful agitation should not be construed as weakness.”
