Emma Powerful is the Media and Publicity secretary of IPOB. In this interview with OKEY SAMPSON, he warned police not to dare IPOB, insisting that despite police threat, the pro Biafra members would come to Umuahia in their numbers from across the globe to participate in the burial of parents of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Parents of your leader, Nnamdi Kanu will be buried next week, what are we expecting from IPOB?
The burial will be done the way burials take place in Igbo land; IPOB is an organization that wants peace in Igbo land and when we talk of Igbo land, we are also talking about parts of Delta, Kogi and Benue States.
Is IPOB going to super head the burial?
No, the point is that the father of our leader was the traditional ruler of a community, you know how communities bury their traditional rulers, the community cannot be left out in the burial, they are the people that will direct us on what to do. But IPOB will participate fully.
When the parents of your leader were alive, they supported IPOB fully, now they are no more, are you missing their support?
We are missing their support terribly but we must forge ahead; wherever they are today, we are promising them that their death would not be in vain, we are going to achieve Biafra in the shortest possible time.
What are we expecting on the date of the burial?
The atmosphere will be calm, there will be no problem, nobody will quarrel with anybody. All the criminals should leave Afaraukwu on that day so that we will bury our daddy and mummy peacefully.
As the media and publicity secretary of IPOB, you are close to your leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Will he be coming home for the burial?
Well, we cannot expose our strategy again, whether our leader will come or not, will not be made public now. If he is coming back if the need be, the IPOB high command only knows. The arrangement for him to come is not for public consumption.
Are you aware police said he will be arrested if he comes home for the burial?
Police can say whatever they want to say because they are serving their masters, but we know what we are doing and we must get Biafra. IPOB does not fear any threat neither is our leader.
Police are emphatic that they will not allow IPOB participate in the burial, are you not foreseeing a clash between your members and security personnel?
How can police arrest people that came for burial? We are not coming there for war or to cause problem, rather we are coming there to pay our last respect to our parents. Police should not dare us, we are not posing any threat to anybody and we don’t fear anybody; we will conduct ourselves peacefully on that day, that’s all.