PRESS RELEASE,
25/11/2023.

The global family and movement of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by our prophet and indefatigable liberator Mazi Nnamdi Okwuchukwu KANU condemn the continuous illegal detention of Mazi Michael Obieze who was abducted in Aba, Abia State by the DSS since May 2022 for allegedly supporting the Biafra self-determination movement.

Mazi Micheal Obieze is not a member of IPOB but only a sympathiser and supporter of the struggle for the restoration of Biafra. We wondered why Nigeria DSS detained him in their secret cell for being sympathetic to Biafra agitation for over a year.

IPOB is calling on the free world and their leaders to prevail on the Nigeria government and its secret police to release all Biafrans in their custody or take them to court. But if they have murdered them in their custody, they should hand over their lifeless bodies to the families or IPOB family members for proper burial. Keeping these innocent people in their custody for a very long time without taking them to court is the highest level of wickedness and human right abuse. We shall continue to expose the inhumane treatment and the wrath in the Nigeria government and her murderous security agencies until they respect human rights.

Any nation and institution that secretly keeps innocent Biafrans who were peacefully fighting for their freedom from a country that its political and economic policies are targeted at annihilating Biafrans doesn’t need to exist. Nigeria is a pariah state and never a democratic nation. The hallmark of democracy is respect to the rule of law, which is alien to the Nigeria government.

IPOB members and those sympathetic to the Biafra struggle are not criminals. Illegally abducting our people and incarcerating them incommunicado without family and legal representation is repression. These ethnic profiling and systemic torture and killing of Biafrans will not stop us. Instead, it will provoke more people to join the struggle. Using the instrumentality of the law to frustrate and intimidate, Biafrans wouldn’t stop the restoration of Biafra. We, therefore, call on DSS to release thousands of Biafrans in their illegal detention or take them to court so they can defend themselves.

Over 2,500 innocent Biafrans were abducted and detained in various DSS detention centers and military barracks across the country. These staggering numbers of abducted Biafrans happened within the last two years. Nigeria’s government kidnapped and renditioned our leader, Mazi Nnamdi KANU, from Kenya to Nigeria. Some of the innocent men and women who were abducted and detained were not given access to family members or lawyers by DSS. We are not sure that all of them are still alive since DSS have kept them incommunicado.
Since the day of their abduction, DSS has not allowed any family, relatives, or lawyer to see them.

We are, therefore, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Mazi Michael Obieze and other Biafrans illegally detained inside the DSS dungeon or arraign them before the law court.

COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL, MEDIA, AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.