TheCable

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has condemned the arrest of Innocent Chukwuma, chief executive officer (CEO) of Innosson Group.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested Chukwuma on Tuesday.

The anti-graft agency said the arrest was due to the industrialist’s “failure” to honour previous invitations.

But IPOB has described the arrest as part of the “ongoing harassment of notable Biafran businesmen especially those of Igbo extraction by the Nigerian government”,

In a statement it sent to TheCable on Wednesday, the secessionist group blamed the arrest on the “impotency of political leadership in the east” and also the “ongoing policy of de-industrialisation of the east”.

The group also said the arrest was caused by the “politics of appeasement and sabotage of collective interest by Ohaneze Ndigbo, PANDEF and similar interest groups”.

“The effect of this ongoing persecution of Innoson Motors Company is as a direct result of the impotency of Igbo leadership exemplified by Nwodo’s stewardship of Ohaneze Ndigbo,” the statement signed by Emma Powerful, IPOB spokesman, read.

“Ohaneze Ndigbo and south-east governors are to blame for this major embarrassment and humiliation of the topmost entrepreneur in black Africa.

“What Innoson Motors has accomplished so far, no Indigenous business in Sub-Saharan Africa has been able to do.

“If Innoson Motors were owned by a northern man, he would have been revered and idolised to high heavens. But because it is a business owned and run by a Biafran, it must be destroyed.”

The group, therefore called for “immediate” release of Chukwuma.

“We are warning those involved in the orchestrated campaign to frustrate Innoson Motors to desist from their evil act before it is too late,” it said.