Press Statement:
March 27, 2025
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) founded by my husband, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, in 2012, same year it was registered as a legal entity in the United Kingdom, has been branded a terrorist organization by the Nigerian government since 2017, but the facts tell a different story—one of judicial overreach, fabricated narratives, and a calculated campaign to silence a movement. Here’s what the public needs to know:
1.No Clashes, Only Assaults: The government claims IPOB clashed with security forces on or around 10 October 2017, justifying its proscription. Yet, no evidence of armed conflict exists before September 10-15, 2017, when the military raided our ancestral home in Isiama Afaraukwu during their Operation Python Dance II. That unprovoked assault killed 28 unarmed visitors to our home and drove my husband into hiding—what the military did in our home was not a clash, but a massacre. Supreme Court of Nigeria affirmed this in their judgement of December 2023.
2. Proscription After the Fact: IPOB was legally banned on September 20, 2017, after the raids failed to eliminate my family members and my husband in particular. The government secured their Jankara proscription via an ex parte order—a secretive ruling without IPOB’s defense—labeling it a terrorist group under the Terrorism (Prevention) Act contrary to the procedure outlined in the same legislation and in complete violation of Section 36 of the Nigerian Constitution. The proscription itself is ilegal for not complying with the basic tenet of the law. This came on October 30, 2017, in the official gazette, weeks after the violence they claimed to curb.
3. Courts Said No: Multiple Nigerian courts ruled IPOB lawful, including a Federal High Court in Abuja, before this illegal proscription by Abubakar Malami and late Justice Kafarati in the same Abuja Divisionof the same Federal High Court. Rather than appeal the decision that ruled IPOB lawful, they went to another judge in the same Federal High Court building in Abuja to obtain an illegal proscription order againt IPOB without a shred of evidence. Till date nobody has published a shred of the so-called evidence upon which the government relied upon to proscribe IPOB. Most people don’t know that December 2015, the DSS dropped all charges against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in the magistrate court. In March 2017, Federal High Court in Abuja affirmed IPOB wasn’t unlawful. Rulings from Enugu High Court echoed this. The government ignored these, opting for a rushed ban when legal avenues failed.
4. ESN Red Herring: The Eastern Security Network (ESN), formed in December 2020 to counter Fulani herdsmen attacks, is often cited to smear IPOB. But IPOB’s proscription predates ESN by three years—making it irrelevant to the 2017 decision. Future actions can’t justify past rulings. This is elementary law.
5. The Real Plot: This began in October 2015 with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest—a campaign to crush a self determination voice through arrests, failed prosecutions, and finally, military force and a flimsy legal cover. An ex parte civil order can’t confer criminal liability in any just system, yet Nigeria did it anyway.
What is their endgame? Their endgame is to smear IPOB as terrorists to dodge accountability for state violence and sidestep the constitutional process they swore to uphold. The public deserves the truth: this isn’t about security—it’s about power and subjugation.
Signed:
Lolo Uchechigeme Okwu-Kanu
28.03.2025.
