Two conflicting accounts
have emerged about the incident that played out at the home of
separatist leader, Nnamdi Kanu, in Abia State on Sunday.
While Mr. Kanu said
the soldiers stormed his residence and injured occupants in an attempt
to take his life; the police said military personnel were only carrying
out a procession to test a new armoured carrier.
According to Abia Police commissioner, Leye Oyebade ,There was no attack on the home of Nnamdi Kanu.
What
happened was that the military was parading a new armoured carrier and
passed through Nnamdi Kanu’s residence. It was while they were passing
that some people threw stones and other things at them,” Mr. Oyebade
explained.
The police chief said normalcy has been restored and
no life was lost during the minor skirmish and Mr. Kanu was neither
targeted nor arrested.
But Mr. Kanu’s lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor,
had painted a different account of what transpired at the home of the
leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, saying there was a siege.
In a statement Mr. Ejiofor accused the Buhari administration of attempting to take his client’s life.
“Just
to alert the world that the Nigeria military personnel under the
command of Chief of Army Staff is presently laying a siege on my client
(Nnamdi Kanu) country home in umuahia.
“They had continued to
shot sporadically into the air through which assault, about five of his
family members were brutally wounded and some unfortunately killed.
There is no doubt that the present deployment of troops to the South
East is to haunt for my client and possibly eliminate him,” the
statement said.
“Let the whole world know that if anything
untoward happen to my client, that President Buhari and his Chief of
Army Staff should be held responsible by the international Community.
We
are presently counting the number of casualties as the onslaught
progress. The world should be immediately notified about the tension in
Biafra land, created by the government in power. We must adopt all know
legal mechanism to resist the unconstitutional but violent approach in
dealing with unarmed people merely operating within the confines of law.
Buhari must be held responsible”.
The Army spokesperson, Sani Usman, did not respond to calls to seek the Army’s official reaction to the incident.
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