Biafra

“We Need Guns And We Need Bullets” – 3 Other Controversies About Kanu, IPOB Head (Details below)

Published

4 months ago

October 14, 2022

There was jubilation about the ruling of the Court of Appeal that freed the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

Ohanaeze’s reaction to Nnamdi Kanu’s release

The Igbo apex socio-political group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has described the discharge as a welcome development.

The vice president of the organization, Daniel Okeke-Ogene, said the southeast region is now free from further headaches.

The IPOB leader was first arraigned on December 23, 2015, and granted bail on April 25, 2017.

Why was Nnamdi Kanu arrested?

However, Kanu has made some controversial comments in the past that sprung some controversies about him.

These controversies spanned around hate speech and death threats that were published across the media. They included: “We need guns and we need bullets”

In September 2015, Kanu was reported to have said the IPOB needs guns and bullets, a reference to armed conflict. The freedom fighter made the statement in a heated address to the World Igbo Congress in Loss Angeles. The address was cited in part by BBC News Pidgin and a paper titled:

“Hate speech and political media discourse in Nigeria: The case of the Indigenous People of Biafra.” The paper was written by Innocent Chiluwa (Covenant University); Rotimi Taiwo (Obafemi Awolowo University); and Esther Ajiboye (Covenant University) and published on ResearchGate.

“You must come out to support what we are doing. We need guns, and we need bullets…To kill somebody is very difficult for us, so to ask a gathering of Igbo people that we need guns and bullets, and weapons would be very very difficult to address, but without it, Hausa people will barrage us.”