IG Warns IPOB against the Use of Firearms

(IG), Solomon Arase

Pro-Biafra group faults Buhari’s claims on how Kanu entered Nigeria

Yemi Akinsuyi in Abuja and Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia

The Inspector-General of Police (IG), Solomon Arase, has warned members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) against the bearing of firearms, assuring them that the security agents would deal decisively with them.
Members of the group had earlier said they were going to be bearing firearms to protect their members from incessant attacks and killing of its members by security agents.

The police high command,  in a release signed by the Force spokesperson,  Olabisi Kolawole,   said the group should ventilate their grievances through lawful means. 

The statement read: “The attention of the Nigeria Police Force has been drawn to a publication credited to the Indigenous People of Biafra ‘to carry guns in self-defence,’ and the IG has sternly warned members of the IPOB to reconsider their stand or face the wrath of the extant laws on bearing of firearms.”

The IG warned that anybody who dares security agencies in the discharge of their constitutional responsibilities, and make life difficult for law abiding citizens, will face dare consequences of their actions.
He cautioned the IPOB members to follow appropriate avenues in ventilating their grievances as anybody who steps out of bounds will be decisively dealt with.

“Members of the group should therefore note that it is an offence punishable under the criminal law of the federation of Nigeria for a person to have in his possession or under his control any prohibited firearms without licence or permit.”
The police boss advised IPOB members to be guided in respect of the above as the police force is poised to uphold the existing restriction over the use of firearms.

Meanwhile, the IG has directed all Zonal Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGs) and state Commissioners of Police to strictly enforce the laws against the use of illegal firearms across the length and breadth of the country
Arase promised that the Nigeria Police Force, complemented by other security agencies in the country, would tirelessly and assiduously work towards eliminating any threat to internal security and social disorder.
He also reassured Nigerians of his commitment to their safety and security.
However, IPOB has said the deliberate refusal of the Department of State Services (DSS) to disclose the items seized from leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, after his arrest was a ploy to reinforce the false claims surrounding his entry into Nigeria.
President Muhammadu Buhari had reportedly said the IPOB leader entered Nigeria secretly without passport apparently to justify his arrest and continued detention, in flagrant disobedience to court orders.
But IPOB debunked Mr. President’s claim in a statement issued yesterday by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, and made available to journalists in Umuahia, saying that Kanu entered Nigeria with his two passports as a dual citizen of Nigeria and Britain.
He said that the DSS confiscated Kanu’s Nigerian and British passports and has neither disclosed nor tendered the passports as exhibits in court, adding that there was no way the IPOB leader could have sneaked into his fatherland.

Aside from the passports, the IPOB spokesman also listed other items belonging to Kanu that were seized by the DSS and urged the agency to release them the family of the detained operator of Radio Biafra. They include his clothes, pair of eyeglasses, 2,000 pounds sterling, N97,000, wedding ring as well as shoes and sandals.

He wondered why both Buhari and DSS would pretend that the seized items were not in the possession of the security agency, adding that the federal authorities also knew that there was nothing illegal about travelling with two passports for somebody with dual citizenship.
The IPOB spokesman said by claiming that Kanu had entered Nigeria without passport whereas his two passports with which he came into the country are in the custody of DSS, the federal authorities were coming more desperate to deceive Nigerians and the international community.

However, he insisted that no matter how hard they try to justify the treatment being meted to the detained IPOB leader, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government and the DSS would never wriggle out of the fact that the continued detention of Kanu had exposed their disdain for human rights protection and the rule of law.