Biafra: IPOB Demands Answers on 2017 Military Raid, Proscription
 |
| "Show us the evidence," declared IPOB, calling on the public to examine the facts: the peace meeting, Mr. Kanu's demands, the military raid, the ban, Mr. Saraki's objections, and the subsequent legal proceedings. |
— UMUAHIA, Nigeria
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has called on the Nigerian government and the international community to provide explanations regarding what it describes as a lack of evidence of terrorist activities during the period of August to September 2017, when the movement was banned.
In a statement signed by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, IPOB noted that its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, had met with South-East governors in Enugu on August 30, 2017, a gathering described as a "peace meeting" by the then-governor, Dave Umahi.
IPOB stated that Mr. Kanu had called for port, airport, and rail infrastructure, access to electricity, industrialization, youth employment, and healthcare services, as well as respect for court rulings.
The group asserted that the turning point occurred on September 14, 2017, when the military stormed Mr. Kanu's home in Afaraukwu (Umuahia) in an operation aimed, according to the group, at eliminating him.
The following day, September 15, the South-East Governors' Forum announced the ban on IPOB. The movement argued that no terrorist acts had been attributed to it during the period between the peace meeting and the ban.
It also recalled a statement made on September 18, 2017, by the then-Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who described both the military's terrorist designation and the governors' ban as unconstitutional and contrary to due process. "Show us the evidence," declared IPOB, calling on the public to examine the facts: the peace meeting, Mr. Kanu's demands, the military raid, the ban, Mr. Saraki's objections, and the subsequent legal proceedings.
IPOB is banned by the Nigerian government, but the international community rejects this ban as well as the designation of the group as a terrorist organization.