Kanu can't renounce Biafra, IPOB tells MEND… Distances self from alleged negotiations with FG

The Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), has vehemently rejected the renouncement  of Biafra as a condition being proposed by the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta ( MEND) for the release of its detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu during the alleged negotiation between MEND and the Federal Government.

MEND had last week said it had made far- reaching agreements and concessions with the Federal Government on ending the renewed militancy in the Niger Delta region part of which was the conditional release of Kanu on the grounds that he would renounce Biafra.

But IPOB in a swift reaction said MEND never sought its mandate before entering into such negotiations, insisting that Kanu can never under any  terms renounce Biafra.

A statement issued yesterday by IPOB's Media and Publicity Officer, Emma Powerful, dismissed the alleged truce between MEND and the Federal Government as " a jamboree".

" We  condemn  the kangaroo and concocted agreements between the federal government and the leadership of MEND", IPOB said.


The statement said  IPOB under Mazi Nnamdi Kanu did not send MEND to negotiate for the release of its leader and other detained  members of the pro- Biafra group.

Insisting on the unconditional release of Kanu and all detained Biafran agitators, IPOB said Biafra's autonomy is nonagotiable "because this is God's project which no human being can stop because it is a spirit that hovers around."

It read in part : "IPOB worldwide and the  people of Biafra can never accept any little conditional attachment towards the release of our leader mazi Nnamdi Kanu and other members detained alongside with him because he did not commit any crime.

" We can only accept the unconditional release of our leader nothing more and nothing less", IPOB vowed.

" For Gbomo Jomo  and MEND to agree with the federal government to release our leader with the condition that he will renounce and jettison the struggle for the restoration of Biafra shows that MEND and its members are out of touch with the history of the struggles."

IPOB further said that if the Federal Government wanted to negotiate with its leader currently detained at the Kuje prisons, he should be approached directly and not through any third party like MEND.

"MEND is a group which does not know what it is looking for, and a group which decided to stay and use the plights of its  people to make demand from the federal government.

" Any group or individual who wants to use the struggle for Biafra to make money or to sabotage the independent  state of Biafra will not succeed."

IPOB said the struggle for Biafra liberation had gone too far , and that it would only amount to exercise in futility for any person or group to arise midway into the struggles " and think it can sabotage the efforts or cause confusion".