The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu has indicted Nigerian police and soldiers of arresting members of the group heading to his parent’s burial on Friday, February 14, 2020.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Kanu said the mourners were accosted on their way to the burial and intercepted in three coaster buses on Enugu-Port-Harcourt expressway.
Earlier, the Abia State Police Command had warned IPOB members against attending the burial, but members of the group defied the police order on Friday, as many of them attended the burial ceremony in Afaraukwu.
The state’s Commissioner of Police, Ene Okon, had warned that the police would not allow miscreants disguising as IPOB members to hijack the burial, adding that the group members won’t be allowed to display the Biafran flag and other insignia.
Kanu’s parents, Israel Kanu, and wife, Sally, were laid to rest at Isiama Afaraukwu in the Umuahia North Local Government Area of the state.
According to Punch, riot police and other security agents closely monitored the burial process.
Although IPOB members didn’t show up at the ceremony in their uniform, they praised Kanu and chanted pro-Biafra songs.
A member of the group, identified as Maduka Okeke, who spoke to journalists said no amount of threat could stop them from paying their last respect to Kanu’s parents by attending their burial.
He said, “We didn’t come in our uniforms because we are mourning and in the Igbo culture we have a dress code for burials.”
Kanu’s father, died at 85 while his wife, Sally, died at 67.
The former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi; Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and Senator Victor Umeh were among the dignitaries that attended the burial ceremony.
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