By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has declared that the conviction of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was based on what it described as ‘engineered insecurity’.

IPOB made the assertion in a statement by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, on Wednesday. The pro-Biafra group noted that Kanu could not have been responsible for the insecurity in the South-East while he was held in solitary confinement, with no access to phone or the outside world.

IPOB blamed individuals it described as ‘desperate political’ actors for the violence that rocked the South-East after Kanu’s extraordinary rendition from Kenya, where he was arrested in 2021.

According to the statement, the insecurity was engineered to frame Kanu and IPOB as terrorists, to pave way for his eventual conviction.

Parts of the statement, titled ‘Engineered insecurity and judicial absurdity: How a man in solitary confinement was blamed for crimes he could not have committed’, read, “The noble family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) draws the attention of Nigerians and the international community to a dangerous lie that has been carefully constructed to justify the continued detention and conviction of our leader.

“Immediately after the extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in June 2021, desperate political actors—many of whom have long envied his influence—unleashed violence and chaos across the South-East. Their aim was simple and wicked: create insecurity and blame it on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, so they could later claim they were right to abduct, detain, and jail him.

“These are the same people who rushed to proscribe IPOB, after Ekwulobia and Aba mega rallies in mid-2017 where millions trooped out just to catch a glimpse of our leader, even though the Abuja Federal High Court had earlier in March 2017 ruled that IPOB is not a terrorist organisation. In plain terms, a group declared lawful by a court was later branded “terrorist” through ex-parte for political convenience.

“These are the same people that killed IPOB members that organised and attended President Trump Solidarity Rally in Igweocha (Port Harcourt) on 20 January 2017. Again, Biafrans killed without justification.

“It is painful to note that yet again, the same forces behind the manufactured insecurity are the same ones who unleashed Operation Python Dance, a military operation that targeted Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for assassination and led to the killing of unarmed civilians across the South-East with 28 murdered in his country home.”

IPOB said it was shocking that the trial judge in Nnamdi Kanu’s trial blamed him for insecurity in the South-East without any evidence.

The statement added: “Most shocking of all is what followed in court. In his judgment, Omotosho repeatedly cited insecurity in the South-East from 2022 onwards and blamed it on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu—despite the fact that Mazi Kanu had already been abducted, rendered to Nigeria, and locked in underground solitary confinement.

“Let Nigerians and the world pause and think. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was held incommunicado in the custody of the (DSS) in Abuja. He had no phone, no visitors, no access to the outside world. Yet he was blamed for events said to have happened in the South-East, outside prison walls.

“This is not justice. It is judicial nonsense. Let us state the absurdity clearly: A man in total state custody was convicted for crimes allegedly committed while he was in chains.

“In any sane country, such reasoning by a supposed learned judge would attract instant condemnation from fellow judges and the legal fraternity. But in Nigeria, the plot was so well executed that many people stopped asking basic questions.”

IPOB insisted that there is no evidence to tie Kanu to the violence and killings blamed on him.

“Nobody has asked: Who did Mazi Nnamdi Kanu kill? Who came to court to say Kanu killed their brother, sister, or parent? Where is the evidence—bodies, witnesses, forensic proof? There is none. Absolutely none.

“Those who planned this deception did a thorough job. They confused the public, silenced questions, and drowned the truth in propaganda. But no lie lasts forever.

“If these Igbo politicians and their external sponsors had been honest enough to admit that the insecurity story was deliberately created just to jail Kanu, our leader would have willingly sacrificed himself if it would have saved the innocent Biafrans who were killed simply to build a case against him. Their blood cries out,” the group added.

IPOB called on the international community, foreign governments and parliaments, human rights organisations, lawyers and judges of conscience, “to look beyond propaganda and confront the truth: this conviction is built on manufactured insecurity, no evidence, and the criminalisation of political dissent”.

“History will remember those who spoke the truth—and those who used chaos to silence a man,” IPOB declared.

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