Amaechi Dares IPOB, Says “Let Them Come”

Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has condemned the August 17, 2019 attack of former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu in Germany by irate members of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB).

Amaechi says if members of IPOB think they have balls, they should come after him.The minister also warned that he will deploy the fine art of self-defense if he is attacked in a similar manner during one of his numerous trips abroad.

Acerbic IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has asked his followers to physically assault any Nigerian politician or governor they find outside of the nation’s shores—at whatever occasion they are attending.

Ekweremadu had to scurry past an unruly IPOB mob while attending the 2nd Annual Cultural Festival and Convention organised by Ndi-Igbo Germany in Nurnberg. His shirt was pulled as the mob bayed for blood and he was blatantly roughened.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has been threatened by IPOB members in Japan as he attends the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development.

However, Amaechi says he’s never been one to develop cold feet in the face of physical attack. “It’s wrong for anyone to attack a federal or even state government official, it’s completely wrong. What crime did he (Ekweremadu) commit? Did he cause the economy to go bad?” Amaechi asked Legit.ng rhetorically during a recent project inspection train ride in the countryside.“It’s a total disrespect. Some of this amounts to envy,” he added.

Asked if he feared for the kind of treatment meted on Ekweremadu, Amaechi shrugged, before saying: “What do you mean by that? Scared of who? I’m going to Geneva, let them come. You know there’s what they call self-defense. I will go to America, any place I have function to attend, I will.”

Narrating his ordeal at the hands of IPOB, Ekweremadu had said: “I attended the second Annual Cultural Festival and Convention organised by Ndi-Igbo Germany in Nurnberg today where I was billed to give a keynote address along with the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, who, however could not make it eventually.

“I was given a resounding welcome by Ndigbo in Germany and everything went smoothly until some men, who identified themselves as IPOB members stormed the venue and began to complain about the killings in the South East, stressing that there would be no Igbo event at the venue.

Ekweremadu served as deputy president of the senate from 2015 to 2019. He has shrugged off his attack in Germany (Guardian) Ekweremadu served as deputy president of the senate from 2015 to 2019. He has shrugged off his attack in Germany (Guardian)

“I tried to engage them, but when they became unruly, I had to leave the venue. The organisers also invited the police and I was accompanied out of the venue.

“Much as I am disappointed in their conduct, especially as I am one of the persons, who have spoken up on justice for Ndigbo, the Python Dance, judicial killings in Igbo land and elsewhere both on the floor of the Senate and in my written and personal engagements with the Presidency and the media as well as rallied the South East Senate Caucus to secure Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s release with Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe taking him on bail to douse tension in the South East, I nevertheless do not hold this to heart against them, for they know not what they do.

“I have received thousands of solidarity calls and messages from well meaning Ndigbo. I want to assure them that I am hale and hearty. I have also spoken with the Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar.”

After skirmishes and street protests in the South-east region of Nigeria, IPOB was proscribed and designated a terrorist organization by the Buhari presidency on September 15, 2017.

The group’s leader, Kanu, had fled his dad’s compound in Abia in 2017 after soldiers allegedly stormed the place and smashed window panes for fun.

Kanu would resurface abroad more than a year later.

IPOB seeks a separation of the Southeast region of Africa’s most populous nation from the larger Nigerian state.

Kanu was arraigned on a slew of charges bordering on treason and incitement; and was observing his bail in the breach when his home was raided.