Radio Biafra, a pirate radio station agitating for the Biafran state, has announced the sack of its director and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu and his deputy, Uche Mefor, in what appears to be a crack among the ranks of the group.
On Sunday, the station resumed on air after months of break, following crackdown on the activities of IPOB by the federal government.
DAILY NIGERIAN gathered that the station was on air from 6 am to 7 am on 7240 kilohertz, 41 metre band, shortwave and in the evenings from 8pm to 9pm on 11530 kilohertz on 25 metre band.
The station’s programme started with the lady announcer who gave her name as Ifeoma Okorafor, stating that the radio was back on air and IPOB was restructuring.
She then announced that “Mazi Nnamdi Nwanekaenyi Kanu, the former Director of Radio Biafra is hereby dismissed and removed as Director of Radio Biafra following extensive and intensive consultations” .
The announcer then named “Mazi Ezenwachukwu Sampson Okwudili as Kanu’s replacement.”
The reasons the Radio Biafra announcer gave for Kanu’s removal included personalization of the Biafran struggle and derailing from the core objectives of IPOB as a grassroots movement.
“Kanu’s actions and his decisions to incite members of IPOB towards violence leading to the death of many innocent young people in Onitsha, Aba and Umuahia is totally unacceptable and grossly irresponsible.
“Kanu privately collected £14m and another $22m to purchase landed properties abroad in his name and that of his father Igwe Israel Kanu in a clear case of monkey dey work baboon dey chop.
“Kanu turned our collective struggle into a money-making enterprise for himself and his father. Thus the monies contributed by enterprising and hard-working Igbo youths across the world are being collected and converted by one man and his father while pretending to be sacrificing for the cause.
“Upon his release from detention in April 2017, one expected Kanu to drum up support for the release of his colleagues and co-detainees such as Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi. These are our brothers who were arrested at the same time with him and they should not be forgotten. We hereby demand their release. Kanu, since his release, has never spoken about them or appealed for the release of these our freedom fighters. Instead, he has been going about collecting chieftaincy titles and having a messianic swagger that even allowed full-blooded Igbomen to kneel down and kiss his feet.
“Kanu threw away the original meaning of our collective struggle for personal gain and vain glorification. IPOB believes in democracy as a solid base of any modern state, the rule of law, and will always reject violence in all its ramifications,” said the broadcast.
Mr Kanu is only the latest change in the history of Radio Biafra, which began as the mouthpiece of MASSOB. It later announced the sacking of MASSOB founder, Uwazuruike as its Director and MASSOB leader and replaced him with Uchenna Madu “in the task of chasing down and overcoming the enemies of Biafra” according to a statement signed by Uche Mefor as the radio’s Deputy Director .
A top security source told DAILY NIGERIAN that “all had been quiet on the IPOB front recently.”
He said the organization has been receding from the public consciousness as many Igbo people began to openly talk against the separation and disunity agenda of IPOB.
“The Federal Government has been reaching out to the South-East and their State Governors have taken a hard stand against IPOB accusing the organization of pursuing anti-Igbo interests; now comes this totally new and unexpected development”
“At the height of the IPOB controversy, the national unity was greatly tasked when Northern youths issued Igbo people resident in the North a quit notice,” said the source.
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