Kogi Socio-cultural group, Ujache Igala Association has called for arrest and prosecution of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for allegedly mapping out Kogi and Benue states as part of Biafra territory.
They, therefore, demanded his immediate arrest.
In a communiqué signed by the group’s National Chairman, Chief Goodman Akwu and Secretary, which was made available to journalists in Abuja, the group described the claim as ‘madness of the 21st century’.
It wondered the parameters that made Biafra agitators think that Kogi and Benue states were part of them.
“There is no cosmogony affiliation or cultural affinity whatsoever of Biafra with Kogi or Benue and mapping out those states as part of Biafra cannot be less than a show of hallucination.
“It is high time the government overcame its insouciance and nipped this audacity of seditious act on time”, the group said.
The group warned against a repeat of civil war which happened between 1967 and 1970 “when most of those class of Nnamdi Kanu and his co-travellers have not yet been born,” saying the elderly ones in Igbo land who saw it all and escaped by the whiskers were not fair to the younger generations for not telling them the truth, hence, the zone was gradually being receded into anarchy.
They demanded from Biafra agitators to explain how they arrived at making Kogi and Benue state part of Biafra geographical area, while reminding them of Kogi and Benue people’s historical antecedents of warfare.
“Kogi and Benue people in the middle belt are aborigines of Kwararafa Kingdom and it is important that our historical antecedents of warfare should be understood as well as the Biafra agitators should be reminded that these are no cowards. It is incomprehensible making Kogi and Benue as part of Biafra, they should try other zones.
“We have noticed with rude shock that the Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohaneze Ndigbo was directly supporting IPOB instead of advising them on the consequence their action would generate”, they said.
The group pointed that democratic regime and freedom of expression did not support secession under any guise as it were, explaining that the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu had breached the bail conditions that left him off the hook.
It added that IPOB leader’s dual citizenship still subsisted despite court decision, saying that if anything happened, he would leave the country.
The group called on the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris to arrest the IPOB leader for prosecution within two weeks, failure with which they would take to streets in peaceful protests.
According to them, government was under-estimating activities of IPOB, MASSOB and others at the peril of the nation, urging that the Police, Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate cache of arms recently ceased by the Nigeria Customs in Lagos.
They asked the Nigeria Customs to disclose publicly, the outcome of their investigations into those behind the importation of arms, noting that rumours were linking the arms to IPOB.
“We suspect complicity on part of IPOB in the recent seizure of cache of arms by the Nigeria Customs and we call on the Nigeria Police and Department of State Services (DSS) for a thorough investigation”, the group maintained.
