A group of sea pirates and hijackers supposedly former militants, has hijack a ship off the Bakassi Peninsula coastline and threatened to blow it up along with its foreign crew if the detained leader of the so called Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, is not released.
According to reports, the group gave President Buhari-led federal government a 31-day ultimatum to release Kanu or be prepared to deal with a destroyed ship and murdered crew.
It was learnt that the group’s spokesman, identified only as General Ben, said they enjoy the support of local residents and of pro-Biafra agitators in the area, adding that the militants might not wait for the expiration of the 31-day ultimatum to carry out their murderous threat.
“We cannot wait till the end of the 31 days to tell the federal government that we are serious. The vessel and the crew are in our custody. Any noise, any delay from government, we will blow up everything. We will blow the vessel and everybody in the vessel will go down.
“We are not interested in the country that owns the vessel. What we know is that the vessel was coming to Nigeria to lift oil. We are not interested, once it is blown up, let the country and Nigeria resolve the matter,” the General Ben said.