Accuses Army of looting family’s property
From Magnus Eze, Abuja and OKEY SAMPSON, Aba
Lawyers to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), have petitioned the
United Nations and the British government to prevail on the Federal Government
to suspend
alleged hostile activities towards the family house of its leader,
Nnamdi Kanu in Afaraukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, Abia State.
The petition, written by Ifeanyi Ejiofor, on behalf of the IPOB leader’s
father, Eze Israel Okwu-Kanu, also urged them to request the government to
return without further ado, Kanu’s private property allegedly looted during the
raid on October 8.
Dated October 12, 2017, and entitled “Re: Unlawful raids, intimidation
and looting in the home of Nnamdi Kanu, by the Nigerian Military operatives and
their Police counterparts, on October 8, 2017,” the petition alleged that
Kanu’s home was invaded, and looted by rampaging security agents.
According to him, the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, which
picked the horrendous raid, revealed the brazen looting and carting away of
valuables and household equipment by the invaders.
Ejiofor said the raid lacked the backing and legitimacy of any known
legislative enactment in the country, more so, when there were pending law
suits, instituted at the Federal High Court Abuja, challenging, on the whole,
“the initial murderous invasion of Nnamdi Kanu’s home by the Nigerian soldiers,
his abduction from his home or his possible elimination by the rampaging
troops, request for court order to compel the Nigerian Military to produce
Nnamdi Kanu in court, and also lawsuit requesting the court to vacate the
exparte order purportedly proscribing Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and
their designation as a terrorist organisation.”
The lawyer, urged the British government to treat the said proscription
of IPOB by government with greatest circumspection as the legality or otherwise
of such exercise was already a subject of litigation.
Part of the petition reads: “It cannot stand because the entire process
culminating into the granting of the order is laden with high powered
conspiracy, double standard, and bad faith. It is more so, when the order in
question is now being challenged in Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/871/2017, Attorney
General of the Federation Vs Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and slated for
hearing on October 23, 2017.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria is under obligation to furnish the
British Government with the particulars of Nnamdi Kanu’s current state. The
question on Nnamdi Kanu’s whereabouts has continued to beg for an answer, which
must be answered by the authority that invaded his home on September 14, 2017,
and shot many unarmed and defenseless civilians dead, while many were abducted
alive.
“The British Government is, therefore, most respectfully invited to
prevail on the Nigerian Government to suspend further untoward activities in
Nnamdi Kanu’s home, and to return without further ado, all his private property
looted on October 8, 2017.
“It is our further prayers that the Nigerian government should be
requested to produce our client’s son (Nnamdi Kanu), whose whereabouts could
not be accounted for, after the murderous raid in his home on September 14,
2017 or release the corpse to our client for befitting burial, if he was killed
in the murderous attack.”
He, however, commended the British Government in particular, and others,
he called responsible foreign governments, for their uniform condemnation of
the military onslaught in the South Eastern states, particularly the bloody
raid on Nnamdi Kanu’s home, and proscription of IPOB.
Meanwhile, the Abia State Commissioner of Police, Anthony Michael Ogbizi,
has insisted that the police will continue to visit the country home of the
IPOB leader so long as they got intelligence reports that arms were being
stockpiled there.
Reacting over a raid on Kanu’s home, last Sunday, the police boss
explained that all items recovered there were itemised and marked as exhibits,
denying that anything was stolen during the joint military/police operation
there.
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