Ipob warns federal government that arresting Senator Abaribe will invoke its wrath

IGBO secessionist group the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) has warned the federal government against arresting the senate minority leader Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe over his call for President Muhammadu Buhari to resign.

Earlier this week on the floor of the senate, Senator Abaribe called for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari for failure to protect the country and its citizens from Boko Haram and bandits. His call attracted an immediate response from the presidency when presidential spokesman Mallam Shehu Garba retorted by saying that the senator should be in jail for standing as surety for the Ipob leader Nnamdi Kanu.

Senator Abaribe had stood as surety for Mr Kanu but the Ipob leader them jumped bail and fled Nigeria, claiming his life was at risk. Mallam Garba said Senator Abaribe deserves to be in jail for failure to stop Mr Kanu from jumping bail.

However, Ipob spokesperson Emma Powerful, has warned the federal government that should they arrest senator Abaribe, they will have to face the wrath of the organisation. He added that Mr Kanu’s home was invaded in a bid to kill him, forcing him to flee the country.

Mr Powerful said: “The recent incoherent and roundly childish tirade by the presidency of Nigeria against Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, unarguably the only distinguished senator in the whole of Nigeria, is confirmation of the paranoia that has gripped the government in Aso Rock. Garba Shehu has not only showcased his ignorance of the law as it pertains to bail forfeiture proceedings in a law court but his pathetic attempt to rewrite the history of the unprovoked bloody invasion of the home of our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by soldiers which directly resulted in his inability to attend Binta Nyako’s court is well documented.

“It doesn’t matter how many times Aso Rock rehears this puerile line of jumping bail argument, the facts are very clear and in the public domain for any sensible person to comprehend. If you went to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s house to kill him, is it a court in Abuja, where judges are impotent, that he won’t be attacked?”

He added that it speaks to the intellectual vacuousness of this APC regime that a seemingly high ranking presidential spokesperson is blissfully ignorant of the constitution they swore to uphold. According to Mr Powerful, any plans against Senator Abaribe and others will fail because ordinary people are now wiser thanks to the gospel of liberation being preached by its leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

"Senator Abaribe has no case to answer, that is why neither Binta Nyako’s court nor the Court of Appeal is willing to entertain the bond forfeiture case any longer. Garba Shehu should stop disgracing himself and his government with their nauseating ignorance of judicial process.

“This same Garba Shehu who said they don’t take advice from the likes of Abaribe were the same people that publicly called for Goodluck Jonathan to resign. Why is it that Senator Abaribe’s legitimate call for the resignation of Buhari is suddenly treasonable felony,” Mallam Garba added.