The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has distanced itself from the conviction of Simon Ekpa, the self-styled Prime Minister of Biafra, insisting that his six-year jail term has no link to the group.
In a statement issued on Monday by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, IPOB maintained that Ekpa must bear the consequences of his actions alone, describing attempts to associate the group with his conviction as “deliberate misinformation.”
“This is a brazen fraud against truth and justice,” the statement read. “The world must know that the question of Simon Ekpa’s non-membership in IPOB is already judicially settled in Finland.”
According to IPOB, it had testified in a Finnish court that Ekpa never held any position within the group or its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN). The group further claimed that Ekpa himself, under oath, admitted to being merely a “content creator,” disowned IPOB, and vowed to destroy it.
The statement accused Ekpa of creating parallel outfits such as the “Biafra Government in Exile,” “Biafra Liberation Army (BLA),” and “Biafra Defence Force (BDF),” which IPOB said it has repudiated.
IPOB alleged that the Nigerian government was using Ekpa’s conviction as a diversionary tactic ahead of the October 10 ruling on its leader, Nnamdi Kanu’s no-case submission before Justice James Omotosho in Abuja.
“The Nigerian state is orchestrating this smear campaign to contaminate the upcoming ruling on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s case. This is not justice; it is judicial hostage-taking,” the group alleged.
IPOB also called on international actors, including the European Union, Finland, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations, to resist what it termed “misrepresentation” of judicial findings and to speak out against what it described as the persecution of Kanu.
“Simon Ekpa’s conviction is his burden and his alone. IPOB will never carry it,” the group insisted.
The statement warned that any judgment in Kanu’s case influenced by Ekpa’s conviction would be considered “null and void by history, by law, and by the international community.”
