Biafra: We’ve Paid Supreme Price With Our Parents — Nnamdi Kanu’s Family

Family of the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, said with the death of its patriarch, Eze Israel Okwu Kanu, it had paid the supreme price for the Biafra struggle.

Afaraukwu Eze-in-council comprising the three communities in Afaraukwu in Umuahia North Local Government of Abia State had, at the weekend, formally announced the death of the traditional ruler who was believed to have died in early November.

Speaking with Daily Sun at Afaraukwu, the spokesman of the family, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, said nothing was as painful as the death of their parents, adding that it came as shock to them, but assured they were doing everything humanly possible to absorb the shock.

He said: “Nothing is as painful as what we’ve been through with regard to my parent’s death. It came to us as shock and a very big one for that matter. But we are doing everything we can humanly possible to absorb that shock.

“We fully understand that it’s what everyone has to go through directly or indirectly, but this is a very challenging and difficult time.

“However, in everything, we give God praise. He said when good happens, we should praise Him so as when evil happens. It hasn’t been easy. But we are doing all we can to make sure that what we believe in is achieved.”

Kanu said they would miss their parents in so many ways, including their parental advice, food and even their disagreements to agree on issues, which he said, were always moments of joy instead of bitterness for the family.

He said: “We are going to miss everything about them, there is the parental advice; the way they make us laugh all the time. You need to see my mother and my father disagree with each other.

“When you see them sit down and iron out their differences, of course, it makes us laugh. They agree in everything, sometimes they disagree as well.

What you may not want to say about any situation, my mother will stand bold to say it without giving a damn to whatever happens, that’s who she is. She is a fearless woman, very fearless, indeed”.

Kanu, who equally added that they would miss their parent’s support for Biafra, stressed that they were pillars to the struggle. However, he stated that wherever they may be today, their wish would be for them to see Biafra realised.

He stressed that they, their children and Biafrans alike, know the dream was alive and were doing whatever they could to achieve it without minding whatever opposition on the way.

He reiterated that his parents died as a result of the trauma of invasion of their home in 2017 by the military under the guise of “Operation Python Dance,” but was not categorical on whether the family would take any legal action against the military or Federal Government.

“I may not be in a position to say that (we can take action against government) until we all sit down together and then look at it from a different angle as well.

“But I’m making it clear that the reason my parents died was as a result of the ‘Operation Python Dance’ of 2017; they lived with the trauma until the day they passed on,” Kanu said.