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Nothing like founding father, we’ve no leader outside Kanu – IPOB

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The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB), is calling out the Nigerian Army over the claim of the arrest of a supposed founding leader of the group, a position it says does not exist as Nnamdi Kanu remains the only known leader and founder of the organisation.

The group said the army were only exhibiting their penchant for intimidating and misleading the judges handling the case of Kanu, currently standing trial before a Federal High Court in Abuja.

Kanu, who has been in detention at the facility of the Department of State Services (DSS), since he was brought back to Nigeria from Kenya has continued to insist that he was not culpable of the various crimes slammed against him including treasonable felony and at the last appearance, had requested Justice Binta Murtala Nyako, had recused herself from his trial, which the judge acceded to.

However, Justice John Tsoho, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, has since returned the case to Nyako, to continue the trial on the ground that two other judges had previously handled the case since it started in 2015 and that it was assigned to her to ensure speedy trial and to end the delay.

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Edward Buba, Director, Defence Media Operations, who spoke at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, October 24, 2024, had announced the arrest of the said IPOB founder, saying: “Troops at Forward Operation Base, Orsu, conducted a sting operation that culminated in the arrest of an IPOB terrorist leader. The arrested terrorist leader, identified as Pius Iguh, is a founding father of the ESN group in the Orsu general area of Imo State.

“Similarly, troops at FOB Amaruku conducted a raid that resulted in the arrest of another IPOB terrorist commander identified as Emmanuel Onwugu. He was arrested in Mbano LGA of Abia State.

But IPOB, in a statement by Emma Powerful, its spokesman, waved off the claim as falsehood and a lie from the pit of hell, adding that it is one of the lies and fake news the Nigerian Army has been using to intimidate and mislead the judges handling the case of Kanu.

The statement, said: “Nigerian Army should stop intimidating and misleading the judges with fake news about IPoB. Each time the case of  its leader draws closer, the Nigerian Army will  come up with fake news or arresting or killing IPoB member.

“We urge the Nigerian Army to stop showing the Nigerian public and the world that it has no class, no honour and no dignity, adding that the history of how IPoB was founded is a matter of public knowledge that predates the childish antics by the media department of the Nigerian Army.

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“Are the people handling Nigerian Army media telling us they are not aware that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was the founder and leader of IPoB before they invaded his house to kill him in his Umuahia home on October 14, 2017? Is the Nigerian Army ignorant of the leading count in the unlawful charges levelled against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to the effect that he is the founder and leader of IPoB?

“How  come the new founder of  IPoB has emerged from the Nigerian Army after the arrest of criminals they have been parading as IPoB? The Nigerian Army should stop giving the impression that it has no class, no honour and no dignity.

“We, the great and noble family of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, led by our indomitable leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to bring the latest pathetic attempt by Nigerian Army in a long line of previous wretched attempts  to influence the justices in the upcoming case of  our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

“The illegal proscription of  IPoB will  surely  fail  as  all previous  attempts did. Not content with using gullible media houses under their payroll to demonize IPoB, the Nigerian Army has now gone one step further in the voyage of ridiculousness by stating that they arrested the “founding father of IPoB” whom IPoB did not know.

“The question any sensible person should ask is where on earth is the founding mother of IPoB now the Nigerian Army has claimed they have arrested the founding father of IPoB? What sort of officer and gentleman will agree to be trotted out in front of cameras and microphones to make a mockery of the image of the  Nigerian Army? That shows, No class, no honour, no dignity.

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“The history of how IPoB was founded is a matter of public knowledge that predates these childish antics by the media department of the Nigerian Army. Are the people handling the Nigerian Army telling us they are not aware that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was the founder and leader of IPOB before they invaded his house to kill him on October 14, 2017? Is the army ignorant of the leading count in the unlawful charges levelled against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to the effect that he is the founder and leader of IPoB?

“Anytime there is a court case involving Mazi Nnamdi Kanu or IPoB, these same shameless characters from the Nigerian Amy will conduct their sham press conference to pressure the Justices scheduled to hear the matter to either adjourn the case or deliver biased judgment against Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu and IPoB.

“This nonsense has to stop and the public is hereby urged to disregard such blatant and shameless propaganda. Next time they should tell us who the founding mother of IPoB is.”

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Between Jezebel and Esther: My letter to Iyom Bianca Ojukwu

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Between Jezebel and Esther: My letter to Iyom Bianca Ojukwu

By Sunny Igboanugo

Iyom,

I feel compelled to write this letter to you today for several reasons. I had thought it was a bad joke taken too far when I saw your name among the seven nominees named by President Bola Tinubu to his cabinet on Friday, October 25, 2024. My immediate reaction was that the move would have elicited a prompt and angry riposte from you.

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I had thought that you would have issued a statement instantly, rejecting the offer as an outright rubbish and warned the purveyors of that inglorious attempt to delete your name from their paper and from their lips permanently. In my Facebook account, I had described you as a deity, which would instantly reject a tainted sacrifice and rather than bless the assault and insult, visit its anger on the harbinger.

When none of such happened, I had hoped that you had decided to take the second option, which was to ignore the move as an irritation, not worthy of your attention. That was until I saw you in body and spirit at the Senate Chambers of the National Assembly fielding questions from the members, some of them salivating like Pavlov dogs, not being able to take their eyes off you, to the extent that Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President had to intervene and demand that they concentrated on the issue at hand.

You could then imagine my emotions at this development. Disappointment is a huge understatement to describe my feelings! I was completely gutted – speechless – eviscerated! How do I describe it? I have not really gotten over this feeling and I had hoped to wake up to the realisation that it was all a bad dream. I have since woken up, the morning after and discovered that it was not a nightmare after all, hence this letter.

I must confess that I know very little about you as a person, having not had any close encounter with you at all. But before I left Enugu to Lagos, I was a regular visitor to the Number 4 Isi-Uzor Street, Independent Layout, home of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Eze Igbo Gburugburu, in my 10-year-stint as the Correspondent of The Guardian, in Enugu. Needless to say that sitting down in the same company with Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was one of my most cherished experiences as a journalist.

However, I discovered that during those many years, I never set my eyes on you except during ceremonies that required your presence. One of such occasions was at the celebration of the taking of that title from Adama Nri, at the said residence. Another occasion was during the state banquet in honour of then President Olusegun Obasanjo during an official visit to Enugu.

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I recall how the Dikedioramma Ndigbo, Amuma N’Egbe-Igwe, Odenigbo Ngwo, who was seated on the same table with the former President, sprang from his seat and rushed to the entrance of the hall to personally lead you to the seat beside him. Outside its fascination and drama that sent a reverberating sensation in the entire hall, neither the significance nor the optics was not lost on anyone. It underscored your place in the heart of the revered Igbo leader and by extension Ndigbo in general.

Though I have not had the privilege of meeting you in person, those who did, have always given you out as highly cerebral, articulate and resourceful. The rest I had always picked from your other public engagements in the media. I recall some of your epistles on the crisis in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) leadership, which pitted you against some of the elements of the party in Anambra State.

So, in the main, I know that you are not just a beautiful face. Aside being intellectually-mobile, you also have a name to yourself – both your family name and the one you decided to pick up through marriage. You were not only born with the proverbial silver spoon, you are also the owner of gold and silver yourself.

Your personal outlook, also suggests that your closet must be suffusing with nice apparels, while your treasure box must be filled with precious jewels of silver, gold, peals and diamonds. Therefore, it ought to be obvious that these are not your desires in making this move. It would be terrible otherwise.

Now, who could have forgotten that hot slap you delivered to Ebelechukwu Obiano, wife of Willie Obiano, former Governor of Anambra State, as part of the fallouts of the APGA leadership issue? The echoes are yet resonating across the land. That singular incident clearly established demonstrable evidence that you are also a no-nonsense, fearless character, not beholding to any form of inanities of high office.

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So, the question is why this? Interestingly, just a few days before this uncanny development, during your keynote address at the annual national conference and convention of the American Veterans of Igbo Descent (AVID) in Dallas, Texas in USA, you accused Igbo leaders of “conspiracy of silence” while using the case of “illegal” detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to elaborate your position.

You were specifically quoted as saying: “It is only when the leaders in Igboland rise up, jettison their perceived conspiracy of silence and confront the truth will there be the slightest possibility of healing and recovery from the unfortunate condition which Igboland currently finds itself in.

“The initial nonchalant attitude towards his (Kanu’s) illegal rendition and continued unlawful incarceration contributed greatly towards inflaming the tensions within the South-east region today. This nonchalant attitude also brought about the unforeseen consequences of opportunistic criminal elements not even remotely connected with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) coming into the picture.”

Now, what does your being named to Tinubu’s cabinet a few days after this outing and your subsequent acceptance of same suggest? Is it your own way of breaking this “conspiracy of silence?” Is it your own answer to dealing with the issue, which by your own account from that US outing shows you are quite seized of the subject in today’s Igboland?

I ask, Iyom, because I know something must have impelled you to travel this route? Are we expecting that MNK, would be free soon? Were you promised that freedom for the IPOB leader is tied to your playing a role in Tinubu’s government as a quid pro quo, and you had to bend backwards to accept, in order to save Igboland and the people you love so much from the current suffering? Was that the deal?

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If in the affirmative, be it known that this journey will have the blessings and prayers of Ndigbo. The spirit the land will bless the footstep. But if on the other hand and in the unlikely event that it is out of hunger for power, perks of office, glamour and the klieg-light, it will be most unfortunate – a most terrible mistake of tragic proportion.

I will not be the one to tell you that APC is a disaster that is happening already. It is not only the most underwhelming government in the history of Nigeria today, it is the most brutal, insensitive, soulless and clueless. The outcry in the street out there tells the full story.

The number of people jumping into the lagoons in Lagos alone and those drinking Snipper to end it all rather than continuing the terrible life of odindu onwu ka mma, are almost competing with those being killed in the streets or in the bushes where their abductors kept them over inability to pay ransoms. The nightmare is indescribable.

But that is on a general level. Specifically, for Ndigbo, it is a totally different tale altogether. It is the civil war doing an encore in a different form. Yes! You may argue that the civil war was more devastating. But that could only be in terms of magnitude of physical damage. But in terms of the spirit driving the current situation, there is hardly any difference.

The bombardment of market places, hospitals, schools and churches may not be there, or the images of the refugee camps of children with distended stomachs, glazy eyes buried in sunken sockets on oblong, hairless heads, carried by tiny necks, but there is another form of blitzkrieg. It is evident as you travel from Enugu to Onitsha or Owerri to Onitsha. Yes! It is there in the eyes of the the people, depicting nothing less than the fears and hopelessness of the war-time hue. It is there in the villages in the noticeable peace of the graveyard that assaults the usually serene firmaments.

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There is no mistaking the deliberate wickedness against Ndigbo these past nine years of APC government in Nigeria. It is not only deliberate, it is intentional. Right from the formation of the party, the structure from the distribution of the officers to the appointments in its governments, has been designed to exclude and deny them a space at the dining table.

Any Igbo man or woman laying claim to being part of the APC structure, is simply joking. Not even some lick-spittle elements going overboard to build a university in Igboland where Tinubu would be taught as a subject would change anything. After all, did an Igbo governor not describe Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor as “next to God?”

What did it fetch him. The people it is meant to please know the game and could distinguish between the pure buffoonery of such outing so quickly so soon. Instead of advancing the course of the people, it only attracts more disdain and deepens the mockery.

Did the same Buhari not ignore him with that trademark disdainful, dismissive expression reserved for Ndigbo alone, when push came to shove? Despite obviously believing that Buhari would make him President if only he could prove how much he could hurt Ndigbo, he did not even get up to five votes at the APC convention for all his efforts at kowtowing, grovelling and spittle-licking to achieve that selfish, if not shameful ambition.

Even the case of MNK depicts another example of the prevailing APC mindset. Before you, every revered Igbo man had tried and failed. They were snubbed in the most disdainful, scornful manner. Ben Nwabueze, had died begging for his freedom.

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Mbazulike Amaechi, had pleaded for it as the last favour the Nigeria he fought for its independent should gift him. He died begging. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, went the same way. Not even his June 12 affinity with Tinubu could swing the favour for him. George Obiozo, former President of Ohanaeze, came from the angle of diplomacy. With his immense on-the-field experience, including working as former Director General of the prestigious Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and Ambassador of Nigeria to the US, he travelled through the known channels. He failed.

Then came his successor, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, a business mogul, a powerful politician with links to men of timber and calibre, coconut and juggernaut like him across the land. He came pulling his own strings, thinking it would work. Did it? Nada! They all died. The thickness of the bad blood was just too hard and heavy to penetrate.

Incidentally, those in the same shoes of the IPOB leader and even with worse cases, are now walking the streets as free men after receiving less than a tap on the wrist, even going ahead to up the ante. The other day, one made a song and dance of a fresh move as he was seen submitting a letter to Number 10 Donning Street, the United Kingdom seat of power for a separate state of the Yoruba people.

As you are reading this letter, nothing has come out of the attempt beyond the usual banal statement from Abuja. In fact, the next day, a video of groups of people throwing their hands in the air amid solidarity songs for that purpose, went viral on social media.

Funny enough, at the death of each of the Igbo leaders, the same people they prostrated for to seek freedom of their son, some, as their last wish, would be the first to issue press statements professing their greatness, how highly they were held in the scheme of things and how Nigeria would miss them.

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I wonder if anyone would miss the intended pun? Certainly not you! The mockery were clearly obvious in each case. I hope this would not be your fate by the time this whole saga is over and the history of today is written tomorrow. That is the APC government you chose to work for. We shall see!

Iyom, let me conclude this letter by reminding you of the biblical depiction of Jezebel and Esther. Both were wives of powerful kings. The former loved power for its sake and used it for destruction, the other did not court power, but when it was entrusted on her, she used it to do good – to save her people. Where will history find you?

May the day never come when you will mount the rostrum to sell this wicked government – which I suspect could be the real reason for your appointment – as others before you have done, just to remain in office even as a junior Minister, which I personally believe is an insult to what you represent. Your intentions must be nobler and your deeds evident.

Nwa agu a-di ata afifia. You need not reply me. The answer I seek will come in few days – or let us say – months from now. Iyom, anya saa! May God lead your footsteps!

My name is Sunny Igboanugo and I am The Tiny Voice!

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BREAKING: One week after DHQ denial, Tinubu names Oluyede as Acting COAS

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Just a week after the Defence Headquarters declared the office of Acting Chief of Army Staff as non-existent in the hierarchy of the Nigerian Arm, President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, named Olufemi Olatubosun Oluyede, a Major General, to that position.

Oluyede is to act on behalf of Taoreed Lagbaja the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), said to be on medical tourism abroad as part of his yearly leave, according to a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu’s spokesman.

Onanuga, said: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, has appointed Major General Olufemi Olatubosun Oluyede as the acting Chief of Army Staff (COAS). Oluyede will act in the position pending the return of the indisposed substantive Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Taoreed Abiodun Lagbaja.”

Last week, Tukur Gusau, a Brigadier General, and spokesman of the DHQ, amid speculation, said: “The Defence Headquarters wishes to clarify that it has not announced the appointment of any senior officer as Acting Chief of Army Staff, contrary to speculation by certain media outlets. For the record, no such appointment exists within the AFN.

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“The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, is currently on a well-deserved rest as part of his 2024 annual leave. The AFN is professionally managed, and all Service Chiefs are performing their duties as stipulated in the Constitution of the FGN. Major General Abdulsalam Bagudu Ibrahim, the Chief of Policy and Plans, is providing routine briefs to the COAS in accordance with SOP.”

Warning those behind the several rumours against the Army to desist from such acts, he added: “The DHQ urges individuals spreading unfounded rumours to desist from doing so immediately.”

Oluyede, 56, a family man, married with three children, who until his appointment, served as the 56th Commander of the elite  Infantry Corps of the Nigerian Army in Jaji, Kaduna, is a course mate and member of the 39th  Regular Course with Lagbaja.

Commissioned a second lieutenant in 1992 effective from 1987, he rose to Major-General in September 2020, with some strategic command positions to his name including Platoon Commander and Adjutant at 65 Battalion, Company Commander at 177 Guards Battalion, Staff Officer Guards Brigade, Commandant Amphibious Training School.

The General, who also participated in several operations, including the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) Mission in Liberia, Operation HARMONY IV in Bakassi, and Operation HADIN KAI in the North East theatre of operations, where he commanded 27 Task Force Brigade, also earned many honours for his meritorious service in various fields of operations.

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They include: The Corps Medal of Honour, the Grand Service Star, Passing the Staff Course, and Membership in the National Institute, the Field Command Medal, the Field Command Medal of Honour, and the Field Training Medal, while receiving the coveted Chief of Army Staff Commendation Award.

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My record as ambassador speaks for me – Bianca Ojukwu

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Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu on Wednesday, flaunted her achievement as Ambassador of Nigeria to Spain before the members of the Senate, as evidence of her qualification to serve as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, the office to which she was appointed last week by President Bola Tinubu.

One of the seven Ministers so named by the President on Friday, October 25, the former beauty queen and widow of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu expressed, told the lawmakers her feat in transforming the Nigerian Mission in Spain to an enviable status during her time.

Expressing dismay on the state of the nation’s foreign missions, Ojukwu, who is also the daughter of Christian Chukwuma Onoh, former Governor of the old Anambra State, said: “The Nigerian Embassy in Madrid that you see today is the product of my time in that country. Today, the Nigerian Embassy in Spain is magnificent. The building was not only that, but the residence of the ambassador was also given a facelift”.

Also detailing how she also represented the country on various international platforms, notably building a bridge between Nigeria and Spain, said that her work earned her the prestigious title of Africa’s Most Outstanding Ambassador.

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“As a former ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain, I spent an entire year in one hotel room because when I got to Spain, the mission building was in such an appalling condition. With the recruiting and training of officers, we conducted a massive preservation of works, not just the mission building itself, giving Nigeria a name that is truly deserving of a designation of outstanding.”

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