Aloy Ejimakor remains Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB’s lawyer - DOS and Emma Powerful should stop all sabotage – Family

The family of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has said that IPOB’s Office of the Directorate of State (DoS) is sabotaging Kanu’s letter and order ending the illegal sit-at-home in the South-East.

The family on Wednesday in a statement signed by Prince Kingsley Kanunta Kanu, younger brother to the detained IPOB leader, said that Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, remains the Special Counsel to Kanu and IPOB and that Kanu truly sent the handwritten letter and the order through him (Ejimakor).

SaharaReporters reported that IPOB in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, had accused Ejimakor of circulating false misinformation by saying on Arise TV that Kanu had no deputy and that “anybody that acts in the name of IPOB whether the person acted for good or bad or for the ugly is often attributed to the head of the organisation and the fish rots from the head.”

Powerful had said that “Barr. Ejimakor is just one of the lawyers contracted to handle specific cases for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. He is not and has never been for the avoidance of doubt, the legal representative of the Indigenous People of Biafra as a movement. He is not an IPOB member. He has no reason to meddle in IPOB operations beyond the special legal matters that he was contracted to handle.

“He has no authority or permission from the IPOB's Directorate of State to speak for IPOB outside the few legal matters assigned to him by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”

Reacting to the claims and counterclaims between Ejimakor and IPOB, Kanu’s family described Powerful’s statement as “defamatory and false” as Ejimakor remains Kanu/IPOB’s Special Counsel in good standing until Kanu said otherwise.

Kanunta said that “For the avoidance of any doubt, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, personally and physically met with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu just days ago on 24th July, 2023. And on 27th July, 2023, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu met with my younger sibling. The main event of both visitations was the standing Direct Order of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu on termination of Sit-At-Home which he had issued through Barrister Aloy Ejimakor on 24th July.

“Let us go on record to make it clear that Barrister Ejimakor was not hired or retained by this Emma Powerful or the Department of State of IPOB (DOS) which Powerful stated he was speaking for. Instead, it was Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (in his official capacity as Supreme Leader of IPOB) that hired Barr Ejimakor in late 2017. So, unless Emma Powerful and DOS believe that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has become vegetative (as they once rumored), how can they suddenly begin to make decisions for him?

“To be sure, what is propelling the DOS is the same animus and jealousy that had propelled them to mess up the first direct order issued by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in 2021, terminating the Sit-At-Home.

“The DOS was driven mad with jealousy and envy that the order was delivered to, and announced by my humble self (Prince Kingsley Kanunta Kanu) instead of by the DOS, and for this reason alone the DOS sabotaged that initial effort by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to terminate of the sit-at-home.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu referred to this sabotage in the latest order he issued to Barrister Aloy Ejimakor and noted how it had caused a rift between the DOS and himself to this day. It is a shame on the DOS that they are again levying the same fratricidal war on Barrister Ejimakor for the same silly reason they had traduced me back in 2021.

“Let it be clear that Barrister Ejimakor’s remarks on the said Arise TV interview of 28th July was taken out of context and deliberately twisted to provide a silly justification to lynch him. In the interview, Barrister Ejimakor - when he was talking about followers of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Simon Ekpa - responded along these lines that ‘when the followers (whether they are of Mazi Kanu or of Ekpa) act for good, bad or ugly and do so in the name of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, it is then attributed to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu just because he is the Supreme Leader of IPOB; and such is unfair on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, hence his reason for issuing the sit-at-home termination order to separate the APPLES from the ORANGES’.

“So, the DOS that is twisting these intelligent remarks out of context should ask themselves these questions: Who are the Apples and Oranges if Barr Ejimakor really meant that there is absolutely no difference in follower-ship?

“Who are those that call themselves Disciples that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu had alluded to in the sit-at-home termination order? And why would Mazi Nnamdi Kanu issue the order to Simon Ekpa if he considers Simon as someone that is not under his command and control?

“In the said DOS press release, Emma Powerful made a Freudian slip when he unwittingly stated in the first Paragraph that: “While we agree that some misguided supporters of Simon Ekpa are followers of Mazi Nnamdi KANU being under the illusion that Simon is working for the release of Mazi KANU”.

“This statement by Emma Powerful is exactly another way of paraphrasing or interpreting the import or real meaning of what Barrister Ejimakor had said on the question of follower-ship. So, what is the beef with DOS, if not jealousy, envy and all manners of twisted tendencies.

“In conclusion, it needs to be made clear that in all the cases handled by Barrister Ejimakor, the IPOB or a member of IPOB and Mazi Nnamdi are the only parties. And where IPOB is not a party, it is Mazi Nnamdi Kanu that is the party and it is only because he is the Supreme Leader of IPOB; so in that sense, it is still an IPOB case with Barr Ejimakor as its vanguard.

“Therefore, this DOS sacking of Barrister Ejimakor, even so laughable and ineffectual, is a clumsy attempt by DOS at biting its nose to spite its face. In other words, it is a senseless attempt at self-immolation of the real IPOB and we will not allow it to happen.”