Pro-Biafra separatist leader, Emmanuel Chigozie Igweanyiba has been declared wanted by Nigerian authorities.
Igweanyiba, suspected to be a prominent pro-Biafra leader in his community of Ndiumeraka Umuoma in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State, is being wanted for also operating with his own armed militia trained to fight for the separatist pro-Biafra movement.
Nigerian Army sources noted that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), led by Nnamdi Kanu had formed a secret militia that uses weapons and extorts money from civilians at illegal road blocks.
“The claim by IPOB actors that the organisation is non-violent is not true,” a former army spokesman had said in a statement.
The South-East region is notable for strong advocacy of a separatist movement of Neo-Biafra as a result of suppression by the Nigerian state.
Igweanyiba, believed to have been born in April 1979, was a professional trader in the South-East and has been a strong advocate and leader of the neo-Biafra movement.
Notably, the neo-Biafra movement is largely a reaction to perceived ethno-national superordinacy as well as the compromised state-building capacity of the Nigerian ruling groups.
Whilst every part of Nigeria is bedeviled with one security challenge or another, the most visible existential threats to lives and livelihoods in Nigeria’s South-East are coordinated attacks on state facilities by unknown gunmen and the brutal military response by the Nigerian state to the neo-Biafra separatist uprisings.
The IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has been in detention by the Nigerian state despite several court orders seeking his release.
Meanwhile, the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Andrew Eden, has also declared Igweanyiba wanted for his involvement in the Biafran struggle.
