By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Tuesday said that some unscrupulous politicians are making moves to frustrate ongoing effort to release its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

It reminded the politicians that Appeal Court had earlier discharged and acquitted its leader on October 13, 2022.

The statement signed by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said that its M-Branch revealed that some criminal politicians recently visited a popular South East governor to persuade him not to support the quest for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from DSS solitary confinement.

The statement partly reads: “We wish to inform those criminal elements working against the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to beware because we know of their secret meetings and discussions against MNK. If they continue with their sabotage, their names will be made public soon.

“Also, some of the political jobbers in the Southeast Region working against the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu should know that we are following their activities closely.

“The unscrupulous individuals hold secret meetings with Southeast Governors to frustrate the clarion call for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who incidentally is the only political prisoner in Nigeria currently.

‘We warn those sabotaging the unconditional release of our leader to stop provoking IPOB. The saboteurs should know that nothing happens in the Southeast Region without IPOB getting the intel ahead of time. Those Igbos involved in this dastardly act to frustrate the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu should retrace their steps quickly.

“IPOB-ESN is not begging them to stop, but they should be ready for the consequences of their oppositional actions.

“The IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has not committed any crime known to law internationally or locally. He is being detained illegally for more than 3 years by the Nigerian government after he was kidnapped in Kenya and extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria in violation of international extradition laws.”

IPOB maintained that Kanu’s continued detention is a gross violation of Appeal Court judgment and a slap on Ndigbo’s face as a race.

While noting that Nigeria government have no case against its leader, the group said that he (Kanu) must be released unconditionally according to the judgment of the Appeal Court.

It added: "The continuous illegal detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is discrimination against Ndigbo.

“The Nigerian government has dropped cases and charges against political prisoners from other ethnic groups but kept only Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in their detention because he is an Igbo man. Does it not mean that Ndigbo mean nothing in Nigeria. The unscrupulous politicians from the Southeastern Region sabotaging the release of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Okwuchukwu Kanu are also not regarded.

“The unscrupulous Igbo persons working against the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu are not only working against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu but also sabotaging Ndigbo as a whole.