A video showing Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader, inspecting the ‘Biafra Secret Service’ is currently in circulation. The online footage showed dozens of ‘officers’ all clad in black attire and red berets, while Kanu is seen inspecting what could be described as ‘a guard of honour’.
This has added a new layer to social tensions raised by separatist agitations emanating from the South-east region of the country. In an attempt to douse tensions, the Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Emma Powerful, said that the secret service was not set up as a “standing army” but “a vigilante group to monitor and ensure the safety of its people returning from the North over the October 1 quit notice served on Igbo people in the North by a coalition of Arewa youth.
“With October 1, 2017 looming, it has fallen on IPOB to ensure the welfare, safety and well-being of Biafrans returning home to prevent what happened in 1966 from happening again. IPOB will not fold its arms and watch Hausa Fulani Janjaweed embark on another orgy of bloodbath directed at southerners living in the North.
“That’s why BSS was inaugurated to gather intelligence and to safeguard those returning to Biafra land from the North,” Powerful said. On whether the BSS will take up arms, he said, “IPOB can never be militarised because we are naturally peace-loving people. More importantly, we consider peaceful agitation to be far more potent than armed struggle, so IPOB will never resort to armed struggle.” The Nigeria Police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, could not be reached for comment as calls and a text message to his phone, were not responded to. IPOB deputy leader, Uche Mefor, could not also be reached at press time, but Abia state Commissioner of Police, Adeleye Oyebade, has declared the BSS illegal. At a press briefing in Umuahia, Oyebade warned those behind the security network, which he described as “unlawful and illegal” to retrace their steps.
