Sit-At-Home: Iwuanyanwu Distances Self, Nnamdi Kanu From Soldiers’ Killings

Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, president of Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo, has denied any involvement in the deaths of soldiers in the South-East, as has Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who is currently in detention.

Noting that Kanu was not responsible for the sit-in order, he expressed his sadness over the occurrence.

It was Iwuanyanwu’s hope that President Bola Tinubu would utilise his position to secure Kanu’s release.

He spoke just moments after Thursday’s visit to the leader in DSS custody, who is currently incarcerated. In addition, he demanded that the nation be reorganised.

To remember “our heroes and heroines” who lost their lives in the civil war that raged from 1967 to 1970, IPOB announced last week that May 30 will be a sit-at-home in the southeast.

Businesses and public spaces in several states, including Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia, and Ebonyi, were closed on Thursday in observance of the “Biafran Heroes Day” sit-at-home call by the banned group.

Officials in Nigeria frequently point fingers at the Eastern Security Network and the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra movement (IPOB) when incidents occur in the southeast.

IPOB has categorically rejected any responsibility for the bloodshed.

The head of the group, Nnamdi Kanu, is currently in government custody and will be brought back to Nigeria to face a trial for treason following his time overseas.

More than a million people lost their lives during the three-year civil war that began in 1967 when Igbo army officers in the southeast of the country declared an independent Biafra Republic. Since then, Nigeria has dealt delicately with issues of secession.

The military is dealing with a number of difficulties, including violence in the southeast, a jihadist insurgency that has been going on for 14 years in the northeast, kidnapping and murder gangs in the northwest and central states, and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.