[BREAKING]: IPOB Slams ‘Manufactured Insecurity’, Says Nnamdi Kanu Jailed for Crimes Committed in Solitary Confinement

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The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has accused the Nigerian state of orchestrating insecurity in the South-East to justify the continued detention and conviction of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, describing the process as a “” built on lies and propaganda.

In a strongly worded press statement signed by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, the group alleged that violence across the South-East escalated only after Kanu’s extraordinary rendition in June 2021, claiming political actors deliberately fueled chaos in order to pin the blame on him.

According to IPOB, the alleged strategy was aimed at retroactively justifying Kanu’s abduction, detention, and prosecution, despite the fact that he was already in state custody at the time the crimes he was accused of were said to have occurred.

Court Ruling Sparks Outrage

IPOB expressed outrage over the judgment delivered by Justice Binta Nyako Omotosho, which reportedly cited insecurity in the South-East from 2022 onward and attributed it to Kanu.

The group described the ruling as “illogical,” stressing that Kanu had been held incommunicado by the Department of State Services (DSS) in Abuja, without access to phones, visitors, or the outside world.

“How can a man in underground solitary confinement be responsible for events happening hundreds of kilometres away?” IPOB queried.

Allegations of Political Manipulation

The separatist group recalled that IPOB was previously declared a lawful organisation by the Abuja Federal High Court in March 2017, before being later proscribed as a terrorist group through what it described as a politically motivated ex-parte order.

IPOB also revisited past incidents, including the killing of its members during the January 20, 2017 President Trump Solidarity Rally in Port Harcourt, as well as the controversial Operation Python Dance military exercise, which it claimed resulted in civilian deaths and targeted Kanu for assassination.

‘No Evidence, No Witnesses’

Challenging the basis of the conviction, IPOB insisted that no credible evidence was presented in court to link Kanu to killings or violent acts in the South-East.

“Who testified that Kanu killed their relative? Where are the bodies, witnesses, or forensic proof?” the statement asked, adding that none exists.

The group maintained that Nigerians were misled through coordinated propaganda, while critical questions were deliberately silenced.

Call for International Intervention

IPOB called on the international community, foreign governments, human rights organisations, and “judges of conscience” to look beyond official narratives and confront what it described as the criminalisation of political dissent.

“This conviction is built on manufactured insecurity and empty allegations,” the group said, warning that history would judge those who “used chaos to silence a man.”

The statement concluded that the blood of those allegedly killed in the process of building a case against Kanu “cries out,” urging global actors to intervene before what it termed a grave miscarriage of justice becomes permanent.