Nnamdi Kanu hints at not returning to Nigeria for parents’ funeral

Nnamdi Kanu, leader the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has hinted at not returning to Nigeria for his parents’ funeral scheduled for Friday.

In a broadcast via London-based Radio Biafra at the weekend, the IPOB leader said he is monitoring developments on the event in Abia state from abroad.

Kanu also said the ceremony would be broadcast live.

The IPOB leader has been on the run since 2017 when soldiers raided his father’s residence in Abia.

IPOB was later declared a terrorist group, and a federal high court in Abuja, where Kanu was being tried for alleged treason, ordered his arrest after he jumped bail.

Reacting to the police’ statement that they would disrupt the burial ceremony if IPOB members attend the event, Kanu said the “whole world will be watching” on that day.

“Instead of them to be remorseful for causing the death of my father and mother, all they are saying is we will come and shoot at people that attend the burial,” he said.

“They should come and shoot; our CCTV is there live… so that when it starts, they won’t deny it.

“It will be relayed live so that when our people’s madness starts, they won’t go back to propaganda and say, ‘it is secession, they are trying to secede.”

Ene Okon, Abia commissioner of police, had said the funeral of Eze Kanu and his wife, king and queen of Afaraukwu (Nnamdi Kanu’s community), would not take place with the presence of IPOB members.

“I have already reached out to the traditional prime minister of Afaraukwu (Nnamdi Kanu’s community) and told him that if they want the burial to go smoothly and for police to give them security, they should tell IPOB not to near the area not to talk of participating in the burial,” the commissioner said.