…..Demands immediate action
Citypost News Desk
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has raised alarm over what it described as an “assassination attempt” on its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, allegedly carried out by a Department of State Services (DSS) operative inside the agency’s facility in Abuja.
In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Comrade Emma Powerful, and made available to the media on Saturday, IPOB condemned what it termed a “barbaric and desperate plot” to eliminate its leader, calling the act a continuation of the State’s “policy of extermination against the Biafran people.”
According to the group, the incident occurred on Friday, October 24, 2025, shortly after Kanu was returned from court. IPOB alleged that a DSS officer “physically attacked and attempted to strangle” Kanu within the facility, describing it as part of a series of covert efforts to “slowly eliminate” him through physical harm and alleged poison-induced organ damage.
“It is now evident that what the Nigerian state could not achieve through unlawful rendition, torture, and prolonged solitary confinement, they are attempting to accomplish through direct physical violence,” the statement read.
The pro-Biafra group also accused Justice James Omotosho, who presides over Kanu’s ongoing case, of turning a blind eye to what it called “inhuman conditions and physical assaults” faced by their leader. IPOB questioned why a court of law would allow “the prosecutor, jailer, and torturer” to be one and the same entity.
“No sane legal system allows such an arrangement,” Emma Powerful stated. “Even in authoritarian regimes, this level of judicial compromise and moral decay is rare.”
The group further recalled past incidents involving the DSS, including the 2017 invasion of Kanu’s home, his alleged abduction from Kenya in 2021, and the agency’s refusal to release him despite a 2022 Court of Appeal judgment discharging and acquitting him.
IPOB called on the British Government and the international community to intervene, stressing that Kanu, a British citizen, is being unlawfully detained by Nigeria; a country it described as “Britain’s colonial creation.”
“If anything happens to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Nigeria will never know peace again,” IPOB warned. “The consequences will reverberate beyond imagination.” The group held President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration responsible for the alleged attack and demanded an immediate judicial probe into the incident, with punishment for the DSS officers involved.
IPOB demanded that Nnamdi Kanu be transferred from the DSS facility to a “neutral and lawful correctional center such as Kuje Prison,” arguing that it is unjust for an accused person to remain in the custody of his prosecutors. The group also urged the United Nations, African Union, Commonwealth, and global human rights organizations to intervene and prevent what it described as a slide into “irreversible anarchy.”
“We will not be silenced or provoked into violence,” IPOB concluded, “but we will not watch in silence while our leader is assassinated in cold blood.”
Meanwhile, the Department of State Services has yet to issue an official response to the allegations as of the time of this report.
