Ten Notable Things About The IPOB

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, is a Biafran liberationist organization with the aim of reinstating the old Eastern Region into an independent state of Biafra. The group was founded in 2012. Here is everything we need to know about them.

1. IPOB is not just about Igbos

Advocates of IPOB are mostly thought to be Igbos and they may as well be but IPOB has never made their activities about Ndigbo. The group has insisted they stand for the entire Old Eastern region that is now Southeast and South-South geopolitical regions.

While an average non-Igbo southerner is slow to embrace the Biafran tag, Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB, and ESN have always included every ethnic group in their calculations, in their pursuit, and in their defense. We have seen IPOB/ESN activities in Rivers, Delta, Edo, etc.

2. Ojukwu remains an inspiring figure

When General Ojukwu declared Biafra an independent state in 1967, a bitter civil war ensued. The Nigerian government fought. There are an estimated 3.5 million deaths and countless cases of genocide.

Even though Ojukwu is no more, his life, what he stood for and fought for has continued to inspire IPOB members.

3. IPOB traces its roots to Radio Biafra

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra is Nnamdi Kanu created IPOB after he previously gained fame from his broadcasts on the medium, Radio Biafra, which was established in the year 2009. This was a radio station from London that broadcast key messages that called for “freedom of Biafrans” and strictly criticized corruption in the government of Nigeria.

Radio Biafra catalyzed Kanu’s rise to the public view, as he was previously tagged an unknown figure. Kanu was accosted and arrested by the questionable Nigerian security forces dated on 19 October 2015, on charges of “sedition, ethnic incitement and treasonable felony.”

4. IPOB is not the only Biafra agitation group

There have been in existence numerous other pro-Biafran groups. The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) was established in 1999 and began to gain attention in the early 2000s up to the end of the decade. The arrest of their leader Uwazuruike gave the group global recognition.

After he was released from prison under Yar’adua government, MASSOB accused their leader Uwazuruike of sabotaging (associating himself with “mainstream Nigerian politics”) instead of pushing forward the cause of Biafra. These disagreements brought about grave misunderstanding, conflicts and division that contributed to the formation of another camp named BZM.

Biafra Zionist Movement (BZM) which later waxed and got into the spotlight in the year 2012  just then, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) emerged in 2012 as well came up (for the first time) after these other groups.

This new group didn’t last for long because the leader of BZM Benjamin Igwe Onwuka and many other members of the group were arrested for treason by the Nigerian government at a rally which took place dated on 5 November 2012 in Enugu region.

BZM’s activities were scaled down because of arrests and trials of many lead members of the group. The rise of IPOB, seemingly, was the last nail on the coffin of BZM.

There is also the Biafra Nations League.

5. IPOB agitations started over a decade ago

After the creation of the IPOB in 2012,  the agitations started immediately. But before then, Nnamdi Kanu had run a one-man army using his Radio Biafra to continually denounce the Nigerian hegemony which is wired to exclude Ndigbo.

Their leader Nnamdi Kanu was arrested by Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) on 19 October 2015 which helped to fuel the popularity of his cause, his person, and his people. We don’t have the figures but we daresay the singular most rallying event in the mobilization of IPOB is the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu.

6. IPOB is a terrorist organization as per the Nigerian Federal Government

On 18 September 2017, The Federal High Court in Abuja has labelled the IPOB as a terrorist organization. The IPOB have fought against this prohibition and sought a reverse to the court’s decision in 2018. However, their attempts have been unsuccessful, and they continue to be declared as a terrorist organization under Nigeria’s Terrorism Act.

According to sources, the Nigerian State has utilized excessive and violent men from the Nigerian Police Force in order to silence pro-Biafran movements. This police violence has been ongoing from 2014, first targeting MASSOB and IPOB after its formation. In the year 2008, MASSOB came up with claims that a total number of 2,020 of their members had been brutally massacred and extrajudicially killed by the state.

Twelve important dates you need to know about Biafra

When facts were been ascertained, the Nigerian army claims that they were only acting in self-defense, and that the death rate count lies at five instead of fifty. These killings have not been investigated by Nigeria till date, despite urgings from Amnesty International.

Human rights organizations have been consistent with keeping records of extrajudicial killings in Biafra. Their claim affirms that from August 2015 through February 2016, 170 unarmed civilians were unjustly killed and that over 400 were arrested, charged or detained without any proper trial.

7. The trial of Nnamdi Kanu boosted IPOB’s popularity 

Nnamdi Kanu was arrested in October 2015. He was detained without trial for more than a year and was only arraigned on November 8, 2016, for charges of treasonable felony, criminal conspiracy, membership of intimidation and an illegal organization.

He was later granted bail after several public agitations including World Igbo Summit Group in April 2017 because of health concerns for Nnamdi Kanu that the judge said needed better medical attention that couldn’t be provided by the Nigerian prison.

However, he was totally restricted from granting interviews, organizing and attending rallies or social functions and meeting in groups larger than ten individuals. Kanu disappeared after September in the same year, 2017 after a premeditated attack launched on his home village, Umuahia in Abia State by the combined forces of the Airforce and Army.

Through a podcast, Radio Biafra broadcast, he explained that his disappearance is because President Muhammadu Buhari sent the military to execute him in his home.

While this case was in court, Biafra was in the news every single second. This, more than any other event in the last decade, boosted the standing of the group and drew sympathy for them in waves.

8. IPOB has suffered series of genocidal attacks

For a long time in their existence, the IPOB has suffered a lot at the hands of Nigerian security operatives. They have existed since 2012 but security attacks on them coincided with when Buhari became the commander-in-chief. Every one of their protests is met with full force.

On 2nd December 2015, a total of nine protesters and two policemen were killed at a protest in Onitsha, Anambra state and even before this time, There have been records of many protesters and police clashes.

What would have happened if Biafra won the war?

On May 30th, 2016, IPOB called for a series of mass demonstrations across towns and cities in the east. The police attacked these protesters and killed at least 40 and arrested dozens in many cities especially Onitsha. It was reported that the police invaded a Catholic church in Nkpor, outside of Onitsha, and killed, injured, and arrested many.

Amnesty International collaborated with this report, released a report detailing that countless IPOB protesters were massacred between the 29th through 30 May 2016 during a governmental operation team wanting to prevent IPOB members marching from Nkpor motor park to a rally.

In August up to the end of 2017, the government of Buhari launched Python Dance in the Southeast.

In August 2020, Nigerian police forces went to an IPOB meeting in Enugu and executed 21 unarmed IPOB members with two men of the Nigerian Police officers dead.

Plus numerous other attacks.

In December, Eastern Security Network was created to defend the whole East and to stand up to security o[eperatives that have made IPOB members their easiest target of all agitating forces in Nigeria

9. IPOB birthed Eastern Security Network

On December 12, 2020, the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu announced the formation of the a group, Eastern Security Network (ESN), a regional security force. This was created as a body just like Amotekum in the South West. But unlike Amotekum, ESN is not a creation of the governors.

Here is a post we made on Eastern Security Network.

The South East governors later came up with their security outfit Ebubeagu. Ebubeagu and the ESN have created a conflicting situation – same agenda, totally different approach.

10. The formation of ESN hasn’t ended insecurity in the Southeast/South-south

The IPOB formed the ESN in December 2020, as a reaction to the Igbo’s saw that they are been targeted by men of the Fulani herders, whom they charged of the crime of grazing on farmlands and committing crimes against local residents (the Igbo people). The movement then waxed into a paramilitary unit with broader functions.

The Nigerian government perceived the ESN as a threat to its authority and deployed the Nigerian army to locate and destroy ESN bases. In January 2021, intense fighting broke out in the town of Orlu, in Imo State. The military confrontation lasted for seven days, until ESN openly declared a unilateral ceasefire, then both sides withdrew from the city.

However, the ESN did not wait 14 days; a few days later, ESN operatives attacked a Fulani camp in Isuikwuato, Abia State, killing their livestock and burning down their houses. Following the raid, some governors responded by heeding the ESN’s call and banning open grazing.

IPOB accused the Nigerian Army of working in collaboration with the governor of Imo state to continue the harassment and intimidation of civilians in Orlu and environs, especially the arrest of a Rabbi and his family members, whom it was reported were being tortured.

Beginning from 15th February there were reports of the Nigerian army sending reinforcements to Orlu. On the 18th of February 2021 Nigeria Military launched an airstrike in Orlu, Imo state; the IPOB issued a swift statement through its State Directorate asserting that “they have finally brought the war upon the Biafran people.

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