Uchechi Kanu, wife of Nnamdi, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB,) whose whereabouts has been unknown since some soldiers invaded the palace of his father during a military operation tagged Operation Python Dance on Monday said there will be no election in Nigeria if the Army refuses to produce her husband.
Uchechi added that Nnamdi who disappeared in the tick of face-off between the members of IPOB, a secessionist group now designated a terrorist group by the Federal Government and officers of the Nigerian Army, on October 9, 2017 has been in the custody of the military.
“Nnamdi Kanu’s issue should be the number one thing. Where is he? You need to provide him or at least tell us where he is. You need to at least do something before you run an election, otherwise we are not going to vote” Mrs. Kanu said in an interview with BBC.
She said the Nigerian government must tell the world where her husband is as they were the last contact with him.
She said, “ He was trapped in the house when they went to invade the house and that was when he called me. He said can you hear the gun shots? I panicked and I started screaming ‘what’s going on?’ and he said to me, the military men are here. They are shooting. Loads and loads of people lost their lives and now, Nnamdi Kanu is nowhere to be found.
When asked how she’s handling her children in the absence of their father, she said, “it is difficult”.
“He is very emotional” she said referring to her son. “Before the invasion, we would video call on Whatsapp and Skype. So, he knows him and now that we don’t even know where he is, if he is alive or dead, he goes sometimes and say ‘daddy’ and that kills me more because I don’t know what to say to him,” a very emotional Mrs. Kanu said.
She also disagreed that the dealings of her husband as IPOB leader was illegal. “How was it illegal” she questioned the interviewer.
“Why should it be treasonous? One asking for self-determination, how is that a crime? It is not a crime”
On insinuations that Mr. Kanu kept his family in the safety of Britain and expected other people to die for a cause he could not bring his family in to fight for, Mrs. Kanu said such statements were insensitive, adding that the family has been the worst hit since he disappeared.
“Do they even know what I go through? I can’t even explain,” she said, adding that Mr. Kanu’s immediate family is homeless and suffering too.
“Is that not sacrifice?” she said, adding that such insinuation could only be made by those she called “Typical stupid African person”.