The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has selected another after Ikonso Commander was gunned down by security forces on Saturday, according to IPOB’s media and Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Powerful.
Powerful, who spoke on Sunday during an interview on Channels TV Politics Today, however refused to name the new commander.
“They can say whatever they like, but we are intact. Another commander has taken over. I won’t tell you,” he said, when pressed by the interviewer.
He said that IPOB is still intact and that the Federal Government could say whatever it liked.
He further explained that Ikonso was killed because he refused to lead the Ebubeagu regional security outfit established by the South East Governors’ Forum.
According to him, Ikonso was on his way to his village when they ambushed him with some politicians ordering the military to kill him.
He said, “Imo State administrator knows very well that he has committed a crime and we must follow him up.
“He (Hope Uzodinma) ordered the killing of this guy (the late commander) because he refused his offer to come and head the Ebubeagu which the South-East governors established. ”
Governor Hope Uzodinma, the IPOB spokesman said, sent some people to meet him, but that Ikonso refused.
Ikonsi, according to Powerful, told them that he could not betray Biafra’s agitation and its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
He alleged that since then, they had been threatening him (Ikonsi).
He stated further that over 50 IPOB members had been arrested in Imo and that government agents had been going round houses to arrest them.
Ikonsi was reportedly killed by Nigerian security forces last week, who claimed that the dead leader was the mastermind of the attack on Imo correctional Centre and Police headquarters in Owerri, Imo State.
