Nnamdi Kanu did not authorise ritual killings —IPOB

The proscribed Igbo secessionist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has debunked allegations that its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, authorised the killing of people for ritual purposes.

In a statement made available to Ripples Nigeria on Monday by the Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Emma Powerful, the group described as fallacious, the claims by a man purported to be a commander of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) that Kanu ordered him to kill security agents and 10 girls to prepare fortification charms.

Powerful insisted that Kanu could never authorise killing of anybody for charms as killing is an abominable act in Igboland.

He further alleged that the Department of State Services (DSS) could have coerced the man to make such false statements against ESN, IPOB and its leader, Kanu.

“We want to make it categorically clear that our indefatigable leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu never authorised the killing of any body for ritual purposes.

“Killing in Igboland is an abominable act and IPOB does not condone such.

“The so-called ESN commander who confessed that Nnamdi Kanu authorised him to kill must have been coerced by the DSS to say he is a member of ESN. The man said he joined ESN in 2019, whereas ESN was established on December 12, 2020.

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“This exposed the fact that they coerced him to be making rubbish statements against ESN, IPOB and Kanu.

“We want to make it clear that the purported ESN commander is not known to us and we discovered that he is a mole planted by government and security agencies in ESN.

“We know our commanders and they know us. The so-called man must be one of the criminals recruited to infiltrate ESN, but our gallant men were on alert and smarter.

“We are calling on human rights organisations and the international community to note that ESN and IPOB do not kill innocent citizens because they were not set up for that purpose, but to drive away armed Fulani terrorists, who took over our forests and farmlands, thereby preventing our mothers from cultivating their farmland,” the statement noted.

By Isaac Dachen

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