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From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has condemned the just-concluded South-East Security Summit in Abia State, describing it as a “theatrical performance,” staged to divert attention from state-sponsored insecurity, and to provide cover for the continued detention of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
A press statement signed by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, on Friday, said the summit was a “cynical diversion” by South-East governors and their handlers in Abuja.
IPOB alleged that the insecurity in the region was deliberately fermented by the Nigerian state after the Court of Appeal discharged Kanu in October 2022, but the government refused to release him.
“Having lost the legal ground, they scrambled for a political justification and found it in manufactured chaos, which they then retrofitted to legitimise his continued illegal detention and eventual conviction,” the statement read.
The group argued that before Kanu’s rendition from Kenya in June 2021, and between that period and the Court of Appeal’s discharge order, the South-East was not experiencing “systemic insecurity of the kind now endlessly advertised.”
IPOB questioned the basis for the 2017 proscription of the group by South-East governors, asking what “security threat or terrorist activity” justified it.
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“We were not killing our people. We were not burning our markets. We were exercising our inalienable right to self-determination,” the statement read.
The group also referenced killings at Nkpo, Igweocha (Port Harcourt), and National High School Aba, as well as the 2017 invasion of Kanu’s home in Afaraukwu Ibeku. It accused the governors and federal authorities of launching Operation Python Dance I and II “against peaceful agitators” and called it “the original sin that birthed the security situation they now exploit for political gain.”
IPOB said the summit was silent on documented incidents including the destruction of Eke Ututu Market in Orsu LGA.
The group also criticised the summit for failing to address attacks by armed herders in communities in Enugu and Ezeagu, describing it as “a cowardly exercise in selective outrage.”
IPOB further stated that the Eastern Security Network (ESN) is “the only force standing between our communities and total annihilation by Fulani bandits” and urged authorities to “study and commend the iron-clad discipline of IPOB rather than criminalise it.” The group called on the international community and human rights organisations to “ignore this theatrical summit” and focus instead on what it listed as the real issues: The unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the demilitarisation of Igboland, the cessation of military occupation and confronting armed herdsmen violence.
“The South-East does not need a security summit. We need the Nigerian state to stop being the primary source of our insecurity,” IPOB said.
The statement added: “South-East remains the most peaceful zone because of the vigilance of its people and the protective role of ESN. No amount of propaganda can rewrite the facts.”
