How Battle With Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB Is Shaping Ijele Speaks Rise To Fame

By Ifeanyi Chijioke

In 2015; Muhammadu Buhari arrested Nnamdi Kanu and detained him- an attack against Kanu’s freedom of speech, association and expression. Many of us fought Muhammadu Buhari whom we called a monster without knowing we were nurturing another monster. Five years after we delivered Nnamdi Kanu from the hands of Buhari, he made a false accusation and petition against Ijele Speaks for exercising his right to free speech, association and expression. The aim of taking Ijele Speaks to Turkish police was to silence him; just as Buhari tried to silence Kanu in 2015. Unfortunately, Ijele Speaks is out of detention and bouncing- ready to sting- a deserving response.

The effort to silencing Ijele is gradually shaping his rise to fame just the same way Nnamdi Kanu was made famous by Buhari. Ijele Speaks will have to defend himself; it doesn’t matter what the outcome will be, the fact is, we will all remember that Nnamdi Kanu made a false accusation against our brother in Turkey because of his view. Even if IPOB conspire with Turkish police and imprison or deport Ijele Speaks; Ijele will remain the winner, he would speak and more people will hear. Supporting Nnamdi Kanu’s Biafra is not by force, the freedom we seek must be our banner in all our endeavors.

Whatsoever Nnamdi Kanu is assiduously trying to stop Ijele from saying is nothing but truth; while he fights to stop Ijele, he is only making Ijele more popular and for more people to hear him and know that very thing they want to stop Ijele from saying.

Ijele is a popular noun in Igbo language- it has popularly become an idiom of glamour, beauty, strength and superlative; while that is the case, Ijele connotes many things. The denotation of Ijele is a revered and decorated masquerade that is occasionally seen. Ijele masquerade comes out when there is a grand festival and it often comes after little masquerades must have warmed the occasion.

To others; Ijele is army ants that always move in company, some call it eruru, the ant when it attacks doesn’t leave its aggressor until its body is disengaged from its head. The army ant is the most feared among species of ants because of their company, they can always kill any aggressor or unfortunate intruder.

When a man chooses the name ‘Ijele’ Speaks; he must be convinced of what he can offer because to live up to that name is not something common. Ijele Speaks may have lived up to his name- since he chose to oppose the fraudulent or treacherous activities of Nnamdi Kanu that ignited the fight.

Chukwuka Ofoegbu is popularly known as Ijele Speaks due to his expository Facebook live broadcast page name; Ijele specializes in exposing immoral and fraudulent people irrespective of status and profession. On many occasions; he has been seen exposing fake Pastors before recently after analyzing Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB and convinced the purpose of establishing IPOB has been diverted to public exploitation.

Ijele has zero tolerance for fraudsters in whatsoever guise and that eventually put Nnamdi Kanu on his list of fraudsters that need to be exposed. Nnamdi Kanu found that move as attack against his business and urged his followers to attack Ijele Speaks.

The attack on Ijele Speaks was repelled and after assessment; IPOB decided to engage Ijele Speaks in a debate, that approach woefully failed with a member of IPOB disgracing himself when hosted by Prime Television. Ijele Speaks won every unofficial debate and he presented superior reason but instead of succumb to voice of reason, Nnamdi Kanu announced a ban on Ijele Speaks program, categorically directing IPOB members on whom to listen and whom not to give ears.

Ijele waxed stronger and IPOB lost on all fronts; the battle did not end there until Nnamdi Kanu directed IPOB to make a false accusation against him. IPOB prepared a petition that was submitted to Turkish police claiming that Chukwuka Ofoegbu is a human trafficker, a trumped up accusation aimed at silencing Ijele Speaks. IPOB couldn’t debate, they couldn’t attack media-wise and false accusation became their last hope of silencing Ijele.

IPOB is known for silencing critics; Prophet Anthony Nwoko was assassinated after criticizing Nnamdi Kanu and claiming Atiku Abubakar offered Nnamdi Kanu millions of Naira to call off election boycott, Nwoko was killed after series of claim he made. Unable to murder Ijele Speaks; the available option became false accusation and petition against Ijele Speaks to Turkish police.

Ijele Speaks in the last 48hrs trended on Google search; this implies that more people have searched Ijele Speaks than they have searched Nnamdi Kanu in the last 48hrs. Ijele Speaks has also began to accrue sympathy; just the same way Nnamdi Kanu accrued sympathy in 2015 he was thrown into prison by Muhammadu Buhari for doing the same thing Ijele is doing today.

Like Muhammadu Buhari like Nnamdi Kanu; two failed leaders. We shall someday remember that the traitor who said he came to give us freedom actually has misled us into destroying our brothers- ourselves.

• Ifeanyi Chijioke, a freelance/investigative journalist writes from Enugu.