face of the earth despite the genocidal killings, arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions without trial.
Kanu provided explanations on the formation of the Biafra Security Services (BSS) , saying the secret police was set up to gather intelligence and not to bear arms contrary to some media reports.
According to him, BSS was basically inaugurated to gather intelligence about the October 1 quit notice to Igbo living in the North; and to also defend communities in Biafra land against herdsmen invasion.
He vehemently denied setting up any army contrary to speculations, dismissing it as a fabrication of media outfits to attract readership and wider patronage.
Kanu also said it was a ploy by the enemies to justify their plot to use crude force against peaceful agitators.
“No army was set up. Forget the distortions you see in the media. They only do so to attract traffic. What we have is only BSS set up to give us intelligence regarding the October 1 quit notice to Ndigbo living in the North.
“We are students of history. The same thing happened in 1966. No adequate arrangements were made to cater for the safe return of our people from the North and as a result, hundreds of thousands of people were massacred.
“All that IPOB is trying to do is to avoid the reoccurrence of the 1966 genocidal massacre of innocent Igbo men, women and children in the North. It is to prevent the menace of Fulani herdsmen which Buhari cleverly avoided to mention during his broadcast because they are his kinsmen. This means that he supports the killings of innocent people by herdsmen as a way of expanding their Islamic domination agenda
“The majority of our people across South-South and South East support what IPOB is doing. They also support the formation of BSS that will take care of this land in terms of its security needs. Attacks by the rampaging Hausa/ Fulani herdsmen will be a thing of the past. We can no longer allow it to go on.”
“People talk about BSS as if it is something new. They have the Shariah police in the North. They also have the Hisbah police in the North answerable to Islamic courts. In the West they have OPC but here in the South East we have nothing. Why is it that when I want to safeguard the interest of Biafra, they begin to kick against it?
Asked how BSS would confront the rampaging herdsmen since the former is not armed, Kanu said “we don’t need arms to disarm people who are carrying guns; we know the terrains of our villages better than they”.
“We are fighting a lopsided, fundamentally corrupt system that has held people down in abject poverty for decades, leading to premature deaths, high scale of unemployment, and complete decimation of the economic landscape. We are fighting a system which has made the rest of us slaves to people who are not qualified to hold public office.
“Do you think that if things were working very well that anybody would want to leave Nigeria? I am a pan Africanist. I want to establish good governance that will extend to the ends of Africa. The way Nigeria was formed and handed over to a band of scavengers can no longer be tolerated.
“The agitation is not against anybody. We are pursuing an ideal nation where hospitals and schools can function. IPOB is building roads but the media will not report that. We don’t molest people because we are under oath to defend those that cannot defend themselves. We cannot bring one to our people but we must agitate.
“I want the world to understand why we are canvassing ceaselessly for our freedom. It is because of the divergent value system in Nigeria. To Buhari as a Fulani man, the only way he can solve a problem is via brute force. But we are not cows that can be beaten into submission. We are not cattle. You must appeal to our sense of reasoning.”
He disagreed with the President on his claims that he agreed with the late Biafran warlord, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, that Nigeria would remain one indivisible country, stating “Biafra agitation preceded Ojukwu. We are agitating for the Biafra that existed before the white man came. We fought to keep Arochukwu standing. We Formed Ekumeku in Anioma and Ahaba which the white man could not defeat.
“Our late Leader Ojukwu and Buhari could not considerably sit in a room to decide the fate of 180 million people. They said Ojukwu said there will be no Biafra which is a lie any way, can two people decide for millions of others?
“No matter how small a clan is, everybody deserves to be heard. I want Buhari to defeat me with the superiority of his argument and not threats.”
On allegations by critics that IPOB members lack intellectual depth, Kanu asked “What have those with enormous amount of intelligentsia achieved in the last 50 years after the civil war?
“What have the so called elite elicited for us? A palm wine tapper can be an intellectual. It is not by accumulation of degrees. Look at the
