‘We demand release of Ngoanadi dead or alive as ordered by court -IPOB

By Cyprian Onitsha, Onitsha

The leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has demanded for the immediate release of Mazi Emeka Ngoanadi, dead or alive as ordered by an Abuja Federal High court, that he be granted bail since 2023.

Recall that Ngoanadi was allegedly abducted on transit by some suspected security operatives along Lagos-Ibadan expressway and taken to Abuja in 2021 and detained incommunicado, until his lawyers went to Federal High Court Abuja to seek an order for his release.

The spokesperson of IPOB, Emma Powerful who made this known in a statement signed and issued to newsmen on Friday said that, “The Abuja Federal High Court granted him bail in 2023 and ordered the security outfit that held him captive to compensate him (Ngoanadi) with the sum of N5,000,000. Till date, the Nigeria government and the said security outfit has blatantly refused to release him or pay him compensation in contravention of the High Court order.

“We are alerting the International Community and Human Rights organizations that the Federal Government of Nigeria has reduced the Nigerian Judges to toothless bull dogs by ignoring their court orders. The fate of Mazi Emeka Ngoanadi is not different from the fate of many IPOB members in the hands of the oppressive Nigeria government and her lawless Security Forces.

“We are bringing the attention of the International Community and Human Rights organizations to the level of impunity and abuse of the legal system by the Nigerian government and her lawless security agencies. Mazi Emeka Ngoanadi and many unarmed IPOB members have been subjected to persecution, not prosecution.

“If they were being prosecuted, the court orders ought to have been obeyed. When it comes to IPOB members and Biafrans, the Nigeria government suspends the Nigerian constitution and the rule of law just to persecute Biafrans. Like many other Biafrans who were forcefully disappeared or dumped in undisclosed detention facilities in Nigeria.

“Mazi Emeka Ngoanadi was allegedly abducted on transit without arrest warrant. Nigerian Government has done everything to criminalize IPOB, including illegal proscription, because we have embarked on a lawful self-determination for Indigenous Biafrans.

The group, however said that the former President, Muhammadu Buhari wanted to obliterate Ndigbo, adding that the present administration continued where Buhari stopped.

“The persecution and violence against Ndigbo by the Nigerian government is unbecoming. The Nigerian government must understand that no amount of intimidation, abduction, forceful disappearance, and extrajudicial murder of IPOB members and Biafrans will make us back down on our demand for Biafra Referendum.

“The only thing that can settle the Biafra agitation championed by IPOB is a Biafra Referendum, plebiscite, or outright declaration of Biafra Independence from Nigeria” IPOB insisted.