The household of detained Indigenous Individuals of Biafra (IPOB) chief, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has dismissed claims linking human rights activist Omoyele Sowore to the arrest of Kanu’s youthful brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, and his lawyer, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, throughout Monday’s #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest in Abuja.
In an announcement issued on Tuesday, Kanunta Kanu, who spoke for the household, condemned the arrests, describing them as illegal and provocative. He demanded the instant launch of Emmanuel, Ejimakor, and different demonstrators who have been apprehended throughout what he stated was a peaceable protest.
Kanunta expressed dismay over allegations that Sowore betrayed the arrested people, calling such accusations “mischievously incorrect.”
“These pointing accusing fingers at Sowore ought to cease it. Saying that he bought out Barrister Aloy Ejimakor and Prince Emmanuel Kanu is wrong,” he stated. “He did what he was alleged to do by mobilizing Nigerians to protest towards injustice. Some Nigerians and Igbo politicians are peddling this lie as a result of they’re ashamed that Sowore did what they did not do.”
He accused some political elites within the South East of intentionally spreading falsehoods about Sowore out of embarrassment that “a non-Igbo had the braveness to do what they might not.”
The household additionally accused the Federal Authorities of utilizing state establishments to persecute Nnamdi Kanu and intimidate the Igbo individuals. They alleged that the current arrests have been meant to emotionally destabilize Kanu forward of his court docket look scheduled for Thursday.
“The federal government is aware of it has no case towards him; that’s why they’re using all method of techniques to weaken him,” the assertion stated.
Based on the household, the protesters acted inside their constitutional rights, and the police lacked any authorized justification to detain them.
“It’s clear that the police didn’t receive any court docket injunction stopping the protest. If such existed, they might have proven it,” Kanunta asserted.
The Kanu household additionally refuted studies {that a} staff from the Nigerian Medical Affiliation (NMA) had visited the IPOB chief for a medical examination as ordered by Justice James Omotosho.
“NMA didn’t study Nnamdi Kanu as directed by the presiding decide. They went on the instruction of the prosecutor. The place did the concocted report offered to the court docket come from? No NMA medical staff visited Kanu,” the assertion queried
The household warned that the continued detention of Kanu and the federal government’s disregard for a number of court docket orders might gas higher unrest within the nation.
“It’s disturbing that Nigeria’s President, the Inspector Normal of Police, and the judiciary are those supervising the persecution of Nnamdi Kanu and Ndigbo,” they stated. “Who’re these opposing Kanu’s launch and disobeying court docket orders whereas citing nonexistent injunctions towards peaceable protests? The oppressors ought to know that the time is quick approaching when they are going to not be capable of suppress the individuals.”
Sowore, in the meantime, in a separate response, criticized the Nigerian Military for shutting down Banex Plaza in Abuja following a conflict between troopers and merchants, describing the act as “an abuse of energy” and warning that the persecution of the Igbo individuals was “reaching a harmful tipping level.”