DON’T OVERSTEP YOUR BOUNDS! IPOB tells Kanu’s US lawyer over call for ‘Biafran’ women to protest in Abuja

Outlawed Igbo secessionist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has distanced itself from calls made by Bruce Fein, the US-based lawyer to its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, that Biafran women should embark on a street protest in Abuja to call for the release of the Biafran agitator.

In a statement by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful on Saturday morning, the group advised Biafran women and indeed all members of the group to ignore such calls and avoid the unnecessary risk such a protest could lead to.

In the statement, IPOB said Fein overstepped his bounds as IPOB’s legal adviser in issuing such directive which will only “expose its women to avoidable dangers and harm.”

The group also took exception to Fein making statements on behalf of IPOB as he is not its spokesman but just the group’s legal adviser.

“Bruce Fein is our legal adviser and not IPOB spokesperson. He does not quite understand that the version of democracy operational in Nigeria is different from the real democracy being practised in the US where he resides,” IPOB said.

“In the US, protests are part and a common feature of democracy and protesters enjoy protection from security agencies. But maybe unknown to him, in Nigeria, protesters are termed terrorists and shot on sight.

“To protest in Nigeria, particularly under the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari, is a suicide mission.

“Such overzealousness could be counter-productive because we operate in a peculiar and very difficult environment.

“IPOB will not advise Biafra women to hit the streets for any protest now because their safety is not guaranteed. We have lost a lot of innocent souls in past protests and the international community watched without any intervention.

“Therefore, we won’t allow more people to be sent to their untimely graves by wicked security operatives in Nigeria who run away from terrorists and Fulani bandits in the North but shamelessly show their might when it has to do with unarmed agitators of self determination in the South.

Read also: Kuje attack: IPOB demands Kanu’s transfer to South-East prison, members’ release

“We have done a lot of protests in the past and a lot of innocent Biafrans were killed in cold blood by security agencies. We do not want a repeat of that again.

“We, therefore, urge all Biafrans to please ignore such directive from Bruce Fein, and any other of such directive not emanating from IPOB spokesman and communicated through our proper channels of information dissemination.

“Biafran women would never obey any orders no matter how important nor highly the office through which it is issued, especially when it is not within the purview of responsibility of the personality issuing such directive.

“IPOB is not a movement where anybody will wake up and start issuing directives. We are embedded on a very firm ideological based foundation and rooted in an unshakeable structure. Everyone knows that Bruce Fein is IPOB’s International legal adviser and not a decision making officer in the Directorate of State of the Indigenous People of Biafra.

“It would be of our collective best interest if Bruce Fein will concentrate on his job and desist from meddling into Biafraland-related matters and areas outside the purview of his brief.

“Bruce Fein is aware that we have some of the best lawyers here in Biafraland but they never issue orders or directives in IPOB but proffer only legal advice when necessary. Bruce Fein is advised to stay off IPOB administrative matters and concentrate on his legal representation.”

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