The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB) has commended members of the pro-independence Biafra group for assaulting a Nigerian Senator, and former deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu. Ekweremadu was physically assaulted by some IPOB members in Nuremberg, Germany
While many have condemned the attack on Ekweremadu, Kanu described it as a show of courage by IPOB members. “The courageous act by IPOB at Nürnberg Germany is a polite warning to those engaged in selling our collective interest to Fulani caliphate,” Kanu tweeted.
Ekweremadu confirmed the attack in a statement by his media aide Uche Anichukwu. The Senator said he was disappointed by the conduct of the IPOB members and had reported the attack to the Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Yusuf Tuggar.
A 64-second video about the attack had gone viral on the social media earlier on Saturday. In the video, Ekweremadu was seen being violently questioned over his alleged conspiracy with the Federal Government to proscribe IPOB in the South East and killing several of its followers.
Contrary to their stance, Ekweremadu said he is “one of the persons, who have spoken up on justice for Ndigbo, the Python Dance, judicial killings in Igbo land and elsewhere both on the floor of the Senate and in my written and personal engagements with the Presidency and the media.”
The Senator disclosed that he rallied the southeast Senate Caucus to secure Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s release with Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe taking him on bail to douse tension in the South East. “I nevertheless do not hold this to heart against them, for they know not what they do,” Ekweremadu said.
Meanwhile, The Deputy President of the Senate Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege has condemned the attack on his predecessor Sen. Ike Ekwerenmadu, describing it as an affront against the Igbos and Nigeria. In a statement issued in Abuja by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yomi Odunuga, the DSP said the attack was not ‘only a dastardly exportation of irrationality but an aggressive international affront against the image of Igbos and Nigeria’.
Reacting further to the attack, Omo-Agege expressed shock over the undeserved assault and called on law enforcement agencies in Germany to investigate and bring to book all those involved in the vicious attack. “Senator Ekweremadu honoured the invitation of patriotic Igbos in Germany who wanted him to deliver a keynote address at the event organized to commemorate the New Yam Festival.
“But some aggressively discourteous elements hijacked the effort to perpetrate a disgraceful assault that seeks to deepen the portrayal of members of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) as enemies of democratic norms and values. What they did is not only a violent assault against the good image of the Igbo race across the world but an aggressive attack against the traditional norms of a people known to be hardworking and respectful of meaningful contributions by leaders such as Senator Ekweremadu.
“Such disappointing physical abuse also grossly disregards Senator Ekweremadu’s democratic antecedents and his longstanding commitment to the cause of his people. But, as he has said out of the usual largeness of his forgiving heart, these people know not what they do. Such criminal attack, along with other anti-social attempt to accuse, condemn and lynch anyone remains utterly condemnable and illegal, notwithstanding whether it takes place on Nigerian or foreign soil as it is the easiest invitation to anomie,” Senator Omo-Agege stated.
