According to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the release of Nnamdi Kanu, their leader, would put a stop to organized crime in the region.
In response to Taoreed Lagbaja’s caution over Simon Ekpa’s instruction to sit at home, IPOB made the call.
Lagbaja had issued a warning that the Nigerian Army will no longer support the Southeast’s sit-at-home directive.
The group said that Mondays, unsuccessful seven-day, and alleged two-week sit-at-home orders and enforcement were not its fault.
“IPOB worldwide condemns the statement credited to the Nigerian Army linking IPOB to the ongoing and destructive sit-at-home orders and enforcement in the Southeast,” says a statement from IPOB’s spokesman, Emma Powerful.
“The Army chief, Gen Lagbaja Taoreed, will not claim ignorance of all the previous press releases written by IPOB led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu disassociating ourselves from Simon Ekpa and his criminal sit-at-home enforcers.
“The reckless and abusive sit-at-home strategy is from the autopilot group led by Simon Ekpa. We have consistently made it known that Simon Ekpa and his autopilot group are not IPOB members and do not represent Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in their violent enforcement of sit-at-home orders.
“If indeed the Nigeria government and her security agencies are interested in the peace of the Eastern Region, they should release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally, as pronounced by the Appeal Court of Nigeria in Abuja, and see their sponsored criminal agents using Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s detention to perpetrate crime go into oblivion and fade away.”