The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has indefinitely suspended its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, and removed him as director of Radio Biafra.
The decision was announced Thursday by Chikadibia Edoziem, head of IPOB’s Directorate of State (DOS), the group’s top decision-making body.
According to Edoziem, the DOS reached the decision at a June 17 meeting after reviewing an intelligence report from IPOB’s “M-Branch.” The report detailed a meeting between Kanu and officials from the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) at Sokoto prison, where Kanu is held.
IPOB said Kanu’s movements and prison communications are monitored by the DSS, and that some of those communications have led to the arrest and deaths of members. The DOS also warned of plans to form a new militia that would use Kanu’s name to instigate violence in “Biafraland” and target IPOB’s leadership.
The suspension, IPOB said, is meant to stop “reckless assumption of authority and unguarded utterances” from being used to justify arrests, torture, and killings of Biafran youths. It also aims to prevent individuals or groups not affiliated with IPOB from claiming legitimacy under Kanu’s suspended office.
“Any crime or criminal activity taken in the name of the suspended office of the leader shall not be attributed to IPOB,” the statement read. The group added that it will no longer be held accountable for actions by people not authorized by the DOS.
IPOB stressed that it was “formed and nurtured by Biafrans in the diaspora” and not by any single individual. It said no one has the authority to dissolve its central leadership structure.
