The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) says it has a new Commander for the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the military wing of the group.
This was coming barely 24 hours after men of the Nigeria Police Force and their counterparts from the Nigerian Army and State Security Service (SSS) in a joint operation stormed the operational headquarters of ESN in Awomama Village, Oru East Local Government Area of Imo state, killing Commander Ikonso and other members of the group.
The group, however, declined to make his name public.
Speaking, on Sunday Politics, a Channels Television programme, IPOB Secretary, Emma Powerful, also denied ESN’s involvement in Saturday’s attack on Governor Hope Uzodinma’s residence.
According to Powerful, “ESN are not the ones that attacked Uzodinma’s house. They cannot come for an operation and tell you they are ESN,” he said.
When asked to explain the group’s operational activities, he said, “We pursue Fulani herdsmen from the region.”
Speaking on the new instituted security outfit by the South East governors, ‘EBUBE AGU’, Powerful said, “They are a ghost security outfit. There is no group like EBUBE AGU.”
Leader of the group, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu had, in December 2020, launched the ESN to protect the people of South-East and South-South regions from terrorists and bandits allegedly trooping in from the North.
The IPOB leader described the outfit as a ‘replica’ of the Western Nigeria Security Network, also known as Amotekun, earlier launched by the South-West governors to curb insecurity in the region.
Kanu had said, “The sole aim and objective of this newly formed security outfit known as Eastern Security Network are to halt every criminal activity and the terrorist attack on Biafraland.
“This outfit, which is a vigilante group like the Amotekun in the South-West and the Miyetti Allah security outfit, will ensure the safety of our forests and farmland, which terrorists have converted into slaughter grounds and raping fields.”