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By Iheanyi Chukwudi
Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, on Friday officially declared an end to all sit-at-home, including the Mondays and any other proposed with the aim to force the Nigerian government to release him.
The IPOB leader communicated the declaration in handwritten statement handed to his special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, authorizing him to read out same to newsmen at a world press conference held Friday evening in Enugu.
Kanu in his statement made it unequivocally that anyone henceforth engaging in sit-at-home in the South East was no longer his disciple and should not claim membership of IPOB.
Sit-at-home order was given in 2021 following Kanu's arrest and rendition to Nigeria by security agencies of Nigeria in collaboration with their Kenyan counterparts and detained at the custody of the Department of the State Services (DSS).
Though IPOB had cancelled the order, Simon Ekpa-led faction insisted on it and even declared sit-at-home on other days of their choice, visiting the people with violence as they enforce it.
In the handwritten declaration dated July 24, 2023, read by his special counsel, Ejimakor, Kanu frowned at the refusal of Simon Ekpa, the Prime Minister of Biafra Republic Government in Exile (BRGIE), to announce the cancellation and further declaration through his media platforms.
He therefore, warned Ekpa to desist from calling for any sit-at-home henceforth and to make a public announcement to the effect that he (Mazi Simon Ekpa) is in receipt of a direct order from him (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu) to cancel any pending sit-at-home in place at the moment.”
Ejimakor’s full address reads: “This Public Announcement bears (as shall be reproduced below) the unedited, verbatim instructions containing a Direct Order personally issued by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in his own handwriting on 24th July, 2023 through me to Mazi Simon Ekpa, instructing him to ‘desist from calling for any sit-at-home henceforth’ and ‘to make a public announcement to the effect that he (Mazi Simon Ekpa) is in receipt of a direct order from him (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu) to cancel any pending sit-at-home in place at the moment;’ and also that he (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu) has, by the same order, ‘authorized me to issue a press statement if he (Mazi Simon Ekpa) fails to make this announcement on his platform.’
“For avoidance of doubt, this Direct Order was personally handed to me by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu when I visited him on the said 24th July, 2023 at the headquarters of the Department of State Security (DSS), Abuja.
Later that day, I tried to contact Mazi Simon Ekpa via his WhatsApp number but could not reach him until 1:44am the following day (25th July, 2023), whereupon I snapped the Direct Order as written and sent to him.
He thereafter acknowledged receipt and we spoke briefly on it and exchanged a couple of text messages thereof.
“Since that early 25th July, 2023 (when I conveyed the Order to Mazi Ekpa and he duly acknowledged it, he has not implemented the Order or otherwise made such announcement on his media platform.
Nonetheless, I made a conscious decision to give him the benefit of doubt and thereby accord him more time to do the needful.
“Then, late yesterday, further written Instructions was issued by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to me, referring to the extant Direct Order to Mazi Ekpa and, in addition, instructing me that given that Mazi Ekpa has not carried out the Order, I must, as of today, being 28th July 2023, proceed to make the Order public through a Public Announcement/ Press Statement.
In the said further Instructions, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu added more pertinent details and instructed that I must equally make them public.
“Accordingly, and as of Counsel, bound by duty and the solemn oath of my noble profession to faithfully and zealously implement my Client’s clear Instructions without any fear or favor, I now therefore reproduce ver
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