Separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu took off Friday after the military and the five governors in the southeast outlawed his organisation seeking secession.
According to the Punch, Kanu and his top lieutenants had ‘disappeared’ from his country home in Afaraukwu near Umuahia and other places he frequently visited.
The group believed the moonlight flight was the best thing to do at that moment,
“We have to apply wisdom to whatever we are doing. We have realized that there is a grand conspiracy against Kanu and other top leaders of our group,’ a member told the newspaper.
“Just imagine barely few hours after the Nigerian military declared members of IPOB and other pro-Biafran groups as terrorists, our own governors came up with their own outright ban of our activities.
“This definitely will give the soldiers and other security agencies the opportunity to arrest our leader and mount a deadly clampdown on all IPOB members. So, it is better to operate from a hideout for now.”
Since the announcement, security agencies, including the army, the DSS, and the police have been on the manhunt for Kanu and others.
AGF Abubakar Malami approached court weeks ago to seek a re-arrest of Kanu who was said to have violated his bail condition in which the court released him early on the year after spending over a year in DSS detention for treason allegation.
His case is said to be coming up later in October.
While the proscriptions were going on Friday, Kanu said in a press release that his group would be considering use of arms, contrary to their non-violent approach, following the Army Operation Python Dance.
The exercise has cause clashes between the security forces and IPOB supporters in Aba and others states in the region.
The government decision to arrest Kanu goes against the advice of some pacifists who believe the APC government should dialogue with the leader of the group now tagged a terrorist irganisation.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo suggested the President Muhammadu Buhari should invite Kanu for a dialogue over the group’s secessionist bid.
Many have, however, decribed Obasanjo as a hypocrite, citing the military option he took to quell not so serious uprising in Benue and Bayelsa when he was president in the 2000s.
“It confirms that the ex-president is a hypocrite who is playing games with even the sacred ideals of our national existence,” said Junaid Mohammed, a critic of the Buhari government.
“Obasanjo without recourse to parliament deployed Nigerian armed forces to Zaki Biam in Benue State and Odi in Bayelsa State.
“He did not seek any audience with those victims, and it is mischievous that the former president has now come up with some advice.”
As things are, dialogue is no longer on the cards as the southeast governors insist they believe in a united Nigeria, and IPOB stands proscribed.