The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) says it has indefinitely suspended its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, and also removed him as director of Radio Biafra as part of efforts to reposition the organisation and strengthen its operations.
The decision was announced in a statement on Thursday by Chikadibia Edoziem, head of the directorate of state (DOS), IPOB’s highest decision-making body.
The group said IPOB was founded as a self-determination movement “formed and nurtured by Biafrans in the diaspora”, and not by any single individual, for the restoration of a sovereign Biafra.
It maintained that no individual has the authority to dissolve its central leadership structure.
Edoziem said the suspension followed a DOS meeting on June 17, where an intelligence report from “IPOB’s M-Branch” was reviewed concerning a meeting allegedly involving Kanu and officers of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) in Sokoto prison.
He said the group observed that Kanu’s movements and communications are being monitored by the DSS, adding that some communications from prison had allegedly led to arrests and deaths of IPOB members.
Edoziem also alleged that there were plans to form a new militia “through which a new round of violence will be instigated and unleashed in Biafraland” and to weaken the IPOB structure by targeting its leadership.
According to him, the suspension is aimed at “preventing those individuals or group of individuals who hitherto are minded to commit crime in Biafraland, engage in criminal activities or carry out any actions whatsoever supposedly on the authority of the suspended office of the leader”.
He added that it will also “prevent unchecked actions, reckless assumption of authority and unguarded utterances from resulting in the reckless arrests, torture and needless death of Biafran youths in Biafraland”.
The statement further said the move would “halt and checkmate individuals and groups not affiliated with IPOB, who claim to derive legitimacy to carry out actions that conflict with IPOB’s mission statement, from the existence of the now suspended office of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra”.
It stressed that “Any such crime or criminal activity taken in the name of the suspended office of the leader shall not be attributed to IPOB but solely to the person or persons who may have instigated them,” adding that “IPOB shall hence forward not be held accountable for actions of individuals or group of Individuals not holding any active position within IPOB or for actions of persons not authorized by the Directorate of State to act on behalf of the Indigenous People of Biafra Self-Determination movement.”
Kanu’s conviction
In November 2025, a federal high court in Abuja sentenced Kanu to life imprisonment on terrorism-related charges.
He was handed life sentences on counts one, four, five and six of a seven-count charge, while receiving 20 years and five years imprisonment on counts three and seven respectively.
During the trial, a DSS officer alleged that Kanu admitted to inciting attacks on police officers, while another linked violence during the #EndSARS protests to his statements.
Kanu has since appealed the conviction.