IPOB: Attack on Ekweremadu should serve as warning to Igbo leaders

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) says the attack on Ike Ekweremadu, ex-deputy senate president, should serve as a warning to other Igbo leaders that they will be humiliated if found in a public event abroad.

Ekweremadu was attacked by some members of the IPOB on Saturday in Nuremberg, Germany during the annual cultural festival of the Ndigbo, apex social-cultural group in the south-east.

A statement by Emma Powerful, IPOB’s spokesperson, said the attack on Ekweremadu was in obedience to the directive given by Nnamdi Kanu, its leader.

The group said Ekweremadu is a “traitor”, who worked with “Igbo governors to proscribe and tag IPOB a terror organisation”.

Some Igbo leaders marked for similar attacks include David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi state; Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, governor of Enugu state; Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of Abia state; and Willie Obiano, governor of Anambra state.

Nnia Nwodo, president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, is also included in the list.

“Yesterday, being the 17th day of August 2019 the Nuremberg IPOB family in Germany in keeping with the long-standing directive from our leader to hound all instigators of Operation Python Dance, IPOB is glad to report that Ike Ekweremadu was confronted and duly hounded out of a so-called New Yam Festival event in Germany,” the statement read.

“Despite repeated warnings to the organisers of these jamborees that Enugu, Ebonyi and other parts of Biafraland is under siege by Fulani caliphate and their collaborators within, they went ahead to invite a known traitor, co-conspirator and one of those that worked with Igbo governors to proscribe and tag IPOB a terror organisation while they never raised any voice against murderous Fulani herdsmen.

“This should serve as a warning to Nnia Nwodo, Dave Umahi, Okezie Ikpeazu, Willie Obiano and co that any day we find them in a public event abroad, they will be humiliated.

“IPOB is strategically located in over 100 countries around the world. Anywhere we find them, they will be dealt with.”

A federal high court in Abuja had declared the IPOB as a terrorist organisation in September 2017, after the federal government had approved the legal process for the proscription of the group. South-east governors also followed suit, proscribing the group.