Uche Mefor, the estranged Deputy-Leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Tuesday evening criticised the group for allegedly enlisting child soldiers in its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN).
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that a video of a young boy armed with AK-47 ammunition and displaying his shooting prowess at a supposed ESN training camp in a forest in Nigeria’s southeast region, trended on social media on Tuesday.
Mefor accused Kanu of ‘going wholesale into criminality’, while also condemning the now-detained separatist leader for ‘destroying the compelling case against Nigeria at the International Criminal Court (ICC)’.
IPOB is a well-known separatist group in Nigeria agitating for a breakaway Biafra nation.
“So, it has also got to the level of enlisting “child soldier”? Is this conscription or abduction? IPOB under Nnamdi Kanu (IPONK) has completely destroyed the goodwill garnered over the years through the painstaking effort of men and women of goodwill that embraced the good news and the insurmountability and audacity of the Biafra case and argument,” Mefor said via his known Facebook page.
“We have been your shield, checkmating your excesses and guarding and guiding this movement to the right channel with minimal damages until the last quarter of 2020 when you all decided to go wholesale into criminality. We are proud of our stance that IPOB must be human rights compliant at the time.
“You have all destroyed the compelling case against Nigeria at the ICC. Crime against humanity and individual criminal liability are real and engages the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). IPOB must stop criminalising the Biafra struggle.”
