The family of detained Indigenous People of Biafra leader Nnamdi Kanu says he foretold years ago that his struggle would one day take him to a Sokoto prison, describing it as a necessary passage on the road to Biafra’s freedom.

At a memorial gathering in their Afaraukwu country home, convened by Biafra veterans under the banner of the Great Great Concerned Elders, relatives and supporters reflected on Kanu’s current incarceration and the price the family has already paid.

Family spokesman and younger brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, told mourners that the IPOB leader had long linked Sokoto with a decisive turning point in the agitation.

“Nnamdi Kanu predicted many years ago that any day he will get to Sokoto, we should know that the achievement of Biafra has come,” Emmanuel said, insisting his brother remains a man of peace who believes in dialogue rather than violence.

He recalled how their parents, traditional ruler Eze Israel Okwu Kanu and his wife, Ugoeze Sally, died after the military raid on the family compound during Operation Python Dance, and were later buried in Afaraukwu. According to him, the trauma of that invasion never left them.

“Our parents are in the grave because of what they believed in. We will not let them down,” he said, vowing that the family would not rest until Kanu regains his freedom. “All who kidnapped the IPOB leader have not had peace since then.”

At the graveside, the family performed traditional rites and offered prayers, invoking divine and ancestral justice on those they hold responsible for Kanu’s continued detention.

“Those who conspired against this family, against Nnamdi Kanu, against Biafra, heaven and earth will be against you,” Emmanuel declared, pouring libation. He added that if any member of the Kanu family had sabotaged the cause for personal gain, “the land should not protect us, heaven will not protect us.”

Veterans and sympathisers, including former military officers and community leaders, urged Biafra agitators not to abandon the struggle and called on the Federal Government to release Kanu unconditionally.

Evangelist Nnamdi Obike of Jehovah Elohim Evangelical Ministry echoed the family’s claim that Kanu had long foreseen his present ordeal. “Nnamdi Kanu years ago prophesied that the struggle will end in Sokoto and now he is in Sokoto. Everything he said has happened. Kanu is coming out and he is coming out with something,” he said.