Early this week, a footage emerged of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) inspecting a guard of honour mounted for him by members of the Biafra Security Services (BSS), an obvious paramilitary arm of the separatist group.
The footage reiterated one thing: regardless of the terms of bail granted him by the Nigerian courts, Nnamdi Kanu is not relenting on his separatist agenda. He made this clear in a recent interview with AFP.
“The mission and the values of IPOB are very simple: to restore Biafra, to make sure Biafra comes by whatever means possible.
“We have chosen the track of peaceful agitation, non-violence, persuasion, logic, reason, argument. We are going to deploy all of that to make sure we get Biafra.
“Our ultimate goal is freedom, referendum is the path we have chosen to take to get Biafra… There is no alternative,” he submitted.
But how should the Nigerian government deal with the IPOB’s paramilitary arm?
Forty-two per cent of 1202 persons who responded to a poll carried out on The Guardian’s website, Twitter and Facebook pages, want Kanu arrested while 33.3 per cent of the respondents think the group should not be taken seriously and so urge the Nigerian government to ignore the BSS.
The remaining 24 per cent want the new security service proscribed and the members prosecuted. By outlawing the BSS, the government would have successfully criminalised membership of the group hence offenders can be charged to court by the Nigerian government.
As at the time of analysing this poll, the government has yet to respond to Nnamdi Kanu’s latest expansion of the threat called Biafra.