A group of ex-militants has hijacked a ship off the Bakassi Peninsula coast line and threatened to blow it up with its foreign crew if detained Director of Radio Biafra and Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu is not released.

The group, which said it was in support of the agitation for the creation of a Biafran state, gave the Federal Government a 31-day ultimatum to release Kanu or it would be forced to carry through its threat.

Also, the group, in a Saturday statement in Port Harcourt through its spokesman who identified himself as General Ben, said it might not wait for the expiration of the 31-day ultimatum to carry out its threat.

He said: “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 under custody.

“And 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.

“We are in touch with everything happening around the IPOB leader.

“Now, court has denied him bail, saying because of his dual citizenship, he might jump bail. We also heard that the judge said he would rather give the matter an accelerated hearing.

“This is provocative; hence we did not waste time to go into action. We are in support of the Biafra struggle.

“We will not retreat or surrender. The federal government might have taken our ultimatum as an empty threat. But, we will surprise them,” the statement reads.