By KEMI KASUMU
A yet another revelation has been made, which further strengthens the claims that some leaders of South East back terrorist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) activities such as killing and kidnapping as they shift the blames to Fulani herdsmen.
The DEFENDER recalls how the Prelate of Methodist Church, Rev. Samuel Kanu Uche, who was kidnapped alongside the Bishop of Owerri Diocese, Rt. Rev. Dennis Mark, and the Prelate’s chaplain in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State in May 2022, came on the media after freedom and said their kidnappers were Fulani herdsmen working with soldiers of the Nigerian Army.
Narrating his experience in a press conference held at Methodist Church Yaba, Lagos State, the clergyman had said those who abducted him and the two others were Fulani and also alleged that some personnel of the Nigerian Army from Fulani extraction were aiding the kidnappers in their activities. He said they were released after paying N100 million.
That unverifiable claim like they also claimed linking the Owo Church attack to Fulani people although Amotekun has been unable to link the attackers it announced to have arrested to Fulani, is believed to have formed part of the purported evidence used in the US Senators’ June 29, 2022 letter to Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken.
In the letter, the US Senators claimed that Nigerian Government was using state power to kill Christians for the mere fact of professing their religion of Christianity, and thereby seeking that the country be re-listed as a Country of Particular Concerns (CPC) meaning to be re-blacklisted.
Recall also that Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) only on Thursday August 4, 2022 addressed a press conference in Lagos telling about the many lies of Nigerian Christian leaders that their Western sponsors and collaborators, such as the US Senators, believed hook-line and sinker. Many Fulani leaders also said it was not possible that those crimes in the South East region were committed by Fulani people considering the dominance of IPOB in the part of Nigeria.
MURIC, which gave data of how Christian leaders working with some Southern ethnic groups, have been painting crimes committed by their members as crimes committed by Fulani herdsmen. MURIC, with facts and figures, said those claims turned out to be lies like in the case of Ekiti among others.
The rights group and the Fulani leaders were vindicated when, in a media report on Sunday, another victim of South East kidnap, Cynthia Okereke, who was recently released, said her kidnappers told her that her film group, Nollywood, should support Nnamdi Kanu, widely known to be founder and supreme leader of the terrorist IPOB the elite and leaders of the region back believing they are freedom fighters for Igbo race.
Unlike Methodist Prelate Samuel Kanu Uche, who was believed to have fallen short of expectation as he allowed himself to amplify the IPOB’s evil propaganda against Muslims and Fulani race just to prove a strength that it can gain by trick Presidency of the same Nigeria it called a Zoo, the latest woman kidnap victim refused to tell lie like the clergyman that said he was kidnapped by Fulani Herdsmen working with soldiers of Nigerian Army.
In an interview with Punch published on Sunday August 7, 2022, the Nollywood actress, Cynthia Okereke, who was recently kidnapped and released, said her abduction was a mistake, as she was not the target of the kidnappers.
Okereke and a colleague, Clemson Cornell, were kidnapped in Enugu State, and their kidnappers were said to have demanded a ransom of $100,000.
In the interview with Sunday Scoop in Punch, Okereke said, “They told me I was not the one they were looking for. They stated that since they could not get who they originally wanted, they had to take me. It was a coincidence.”
She also stated that contrary to some reports, a ransom was paid before she was released saying “It is a lie” that no ransom was paid.
Asked how much was paid to secure her freedom, the actress said, “That is what I won’t tell you, but a ransom was paid. I don’t want it to go viral but ransom was paid. My husband was the one who took the ransom to Ngwa in Abia State.”
Recounting her experience in the kidnappers’ den, she said, “They did not give me anything. For the first two days I was there, I was not given any food. It was on the third day they gave me milk and a malt drink. Because my stomach was empty, I knew that I would vomit if I took it, so I declined.”
Asked if the kidnappers recognised her as an actress, Okereke said, “When they captured us at Centenary Junction in Enugu, they said, ‘Cynthia Okereke, you think we don’t know you?’ So, I asked them what they wanted and pleaded that they should take my car when they shot into the air. They said they did not need the car.”
On how they were transported to the criminal’s lair, the actress said, “We were wrapped with a trampoline and taken to an unknown destination. It was the following morning that one of them asked me if I know where I was. I said I didn’t no, and told me we were in Ebonyi State.”
Recalling some of the things the kidnappers told her while in their camp, she said, “They said Nollywood is not supporting Nnamdi Kanu (founder of the Indigenous People of Biafra), that we should come out en masse to support him. According to them, ‘Kanu is fighting for every one (Igbo people).”
