…Arrest 10 members, recover 13 AK-47 rifles
…Those arrested not our members—IPOB spokesperson
…As Kanu mocks those who see self-determination as treason
By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South, Festus Ahon & Chimaobi Nwaiwu
COMMISSIONER of Police, Delta State Command, Hafix Inuwa, yesterday, fingered the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, for snatching and robbing guns from police officers in the state since 2018, saying the command apprehended 10 members with 13 AK-47 rifles snatched and robbed on different occasions.
Besides, police also discovered three undercover training grounds operated by the group at Ibusa, Okpanam and Illah communities in the state.
Inuwa, who paraded 182 suspects, including 22 suspected kidnappers, alleged 66 cultists and 53 armed robbers nabbed in the past three months, told journalists at a press briefing in Asaba, the state capital, that the command would continue to provide residents of the state with adequate security, protect lives and property.
Police also arrested 12 Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, members from Ondo State with arms and ammunition, accusing them of coming to Delta to commit crime. But the members, many of whom wore black vests, claiming they were bonafide OPC members attached to the Deputy Governor’s Office, Ondo state, denied the charge.
Among the IPOB members in custody was the state coordinator, John Chukwuka, who told Vanguard: “I never snatched rifles from the police but as the coordinator, I saw the rifles when I visited our camps but I did not know how the rifles came there.”
According to Inuwa,“following recent series of attacks on policemen at nipping points and snatching of police rifles by suspected members of outlawed IPOB in Asaba, the command sustained efforts in the investigation of the attacks and snatching of police rifles and ammunition in the state yielded desired results when some principal suspects with strong link to the proscribed IPOB were arrested and made confessional statements.”
Those arrested
Top on the list of arrested persons were Ejiofor, 45, a native of Anam in Anambra State;Sunday, 37; Chukwudi, 28 and Onyeka, 29, all from Ebonyi State; 33-year-old Ashaka and Christian, 44, from Delta State; Chima, 26 and Okpara, 37, from Imo State; Maxwell, 36, a native of Abia State and Chibuike, 28, a native of Aguleri in Anambra State, all residents of Asaba.
Items recovered
Inuwa revealed: “After a diligent and painstaking investigation, on April 5 at about 2015 hours, while acting on the confession of the arrested key principal suspects, police detectives recovered the following arms and ammunition snatched from policemen from Ugwunwosu Camp of the proscribed IPOB: 10 AK-47 rifles with breech numbers 109003, 533353, 59280, 26240, 06515, 4837, 6466, 2581, 340967; 10 magazines with 200 rounds of AK-47 ammunition.
“Also on April 24 at about 12:30 hours, one of the suspects, Christian, led police operatives to the proscribed IPOB training camp at Ibusa, where one AK-47 rifle with breech number BA 354592, with its magazine and 26 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition robbed from Safer Highway Patrol team, along Ogwashi-Uku-Kwale road, by Obasanjo Farms on January 23, 2020 was recovered from where it was buried in the camp.
“Similarly, on April 29, at about 23:40 hours, two of the suspects led the operatives to Idumogi forest in Okpanam, where the following robbed police arms were recovered from where they were buried: two AK-47 rifles with breech Nos. 60037 and 3891; one smoke gunner with breech number 2849197; one smoke canister, four AK-47 magazines, 212 (7.62 mm) AK-47 ammunition, one MP3, a set of Allen keys and one hand bag.
“Meanwhile, a total of 13 police AK-47 rifles with ammunition robbed during attacks on policemen in the state over the years, have been recovered. Investigation is still in progress.”
How they were arrested
Inuwa disclosed that luck ran out of five of the kidnappers, including a hotel manager, after they collected an undisclosed ransom to release Mrs. Victoria Ogharaon abducted February 22, when operatives of Special Anti-Kidnapping and Cyber Crime Squad, SAKCCS, investigating the incident, tracked them down at Oghara, Ethiope West Local Government Area of the state.
He said: “The arrested suspects confessed belonging to the same kidnap gang and their individual roles in the kidnap incident. It was also discovered that the suspects were preparing to carry out another kidnap operation before their arrest.
“One locally made shot gun with four live cartridges, two face masks, ropes and cellotape were recovered from the suspects. They would be charged to court at the conclusion of investigation.
Acting on information on suspected kidnappers on the command’s wanted list at cattle market, Oghara, on February 29 at about 13 hours, a team of SAKCCS operatives trailed and arrested one Abdullahi, 20 years from Benin Republic and Abu Bello, 19 years, a native of Lafia-Igum, Nasarawa State, both residents of Oghara.
“The suspects have been on the command’s wanted list for series of kidnap incidents, along Benin-Oghara road, Benin-Kogi-Abuja expressway. Suspects have been transferred to Kogi State Command, Lokoja, for further investigation,” he added
Suspected child traffickers
Also in police net were two suspected child traffickers, Tolulope and Abiola, intercepted while on transit in a commercial bus along Asaba-Benin expressway in Okpanam area.
Inuwa asserted: “They were suspected to have sold a newly born male child delivered by one of them to a trafficker in Onitsha and were heading back to their base in Akure when they were arrested by the police acting on information.
“In the course of investigation and following the confession of Tolulope, it was discovered that she tricked pregnant Abiola from Akure to Onitsha where she successfully gave birth to a baby boy, but she later took the baby from her and sold him to one Mrs. Nkaneme in Onitsha, while she lied to the mother that the baby died some hours after delivery.
“The buyer, Mrs. Nkaneme, also sold the child to another buyer, one Mrs. Ekunno.
“Meanwhile, the two buyers have been arrested with one Josephine and the stolen child was recovered. Their arrest led to the discovery of another two-week-old male child also suspected to have been stolen from Mrs. Ekunno. The case is still under investigation,” he asserted.
Those arrested by police not our members—IPOB spokesperson
Reacting to the arrest of IPOB members, Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr Emma Powerful, in a statement, said those arrested were not members of the organisation.
He said: “It has come to the notice of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, though not by surprise, claims by the Nigeria Police that some persons allegedly arrested with AK-47 rifles in Delta State are IPOB members.
“We do not need to dissipate energy trying to prove our innocence because we already know the antecedents of the Nigeria security agencies and their bitterness towards us. However, we wish to put the record straight for the sake of the gullible and perhaps innocent Biafrans the security agents want to hang or waste unjustifiably by branding them IPOB members.
“The fact remains that our non-violent philosophy in our quest to restore Biafra Republic has not changed and any time we feel like changing that position, we shall make it open and also tell the world our next strategy. Our Leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has continuously made it clear that Biafra will be actualised without firing a shot. And for now, that position has not changed.
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“IPOB remains a peaceful movement seeking to restore Biafra without violence. We are not into any arms struggle. If we were to pick up arms against the Nigerian government, thousands of our members killed in cold blood by Nigerian security agents would have defended themselves instead of dying like sacrificial lambs.
“If at all any person (s) were arrested with AK-47 in Delta State, those who arrested them should try to establish their true identity. No IPOB family member bears arms for any reason. We know of course that this will not be the first time the Nigerian security agencies will arrest people with or without gun, claim they had guns and try to link them with IPOB all in their desperation to disrepute an unarmed and a peaceful movement.
“Our global record speaks for us. IPOB has never been associated with violence or arms struggle anywhere in the world. The world is today listening to us because it is a proven and incontrovertible fact that we are not violent despite being wrongly tagged terrorist organisation by the Nigeria Government to stop us.
“We, therefore, want to advise Nigeria security agencies to stop making jest of themselves by trying to associate IPOB with violence. They should try another tact because this one can never fly. Come to think of it, if IPOB were to be armed, what shall we be doing with 13 AK-47?”
Nnamdi Kanu mocks those who see self determination as treason
Meanwhile, leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, yesterday, told those who are claiming that self-determination amounts to treason, to go back to the Nigerian constitution for better understanding.
In a statement entitled, “Demanding for self determination is not treason and has never been. Self-Determination is legalised in Nigeria,” he personally signed and made available through IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, Mazi Kanu referred those saying the contrary to Article 20, CAP A9, Laws of Nigeria.
Reacting to the discharge and acquittal of the four IPOB members arrested in Igweocha, Rivers State, during the solidarity rally for the emergence of United States President, Donald Trump, otherwise known as ‘Igweocha Trump Four,’ Kanu regretted that even those who should know that self-determination is part of Nigerian law, do not know or pretend not to know.
The IPOB leader’s statement read in part: “Demanding for self-determination is not treason and has never been. Self-determination is legalised in Nigeria.
“Yes! It is legalised in Nigeria and is part of the laws of Nigeria. Go and check Article 20, CAP A9, Laws of Nigeria, which states that ‘All people shall have the unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination.’
“The saddest part is that those who call themselves judges and learned people do not know this. It is in their statute books as a law they enacted, but their media, judges, courts, lawyers, legal luminaries, legal experts, SANs and God knows what else, have no clue about this let alone of a quota educated Attorney General.”
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