The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has strongly condemned an article published by Within Nigeria titled “Political Solution to IPOB Impasse: Sowore and the Case for Nnamdi Kanu’s Release”, describing it as “state-sponsored propaganda disguised as journalism.”
In a statement issued on October 13, 2025, by IPOB’s spokesperson, Comrade Emma Powerful, the group accused the article’s author, Afolabi Hakim, of “acting as a mouthpiece for the Nigerian government” and deliberately distorting facts surrounding the ongoing trial of IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Powerful said the publication ignored critical legal facts, including Justice Binta Nyako’s earlier remarks that the charges against Kanu “do not disclose any offence known to law.” He also criticised the Federal Government for what he called “illegal manipulation of the judicial process,” arguing that the 2017 proscription of IPOB was based on an “unlawful ex parte order” obtained without giving the movement a chance to defend itself.
He further stated that Kanu’s 2021 abduction from Kenya was “extraordinary rendition,” an international crime that invalidates any subsequent trial. “Every civilised nation recognises that a trial built on an illegal capture is itself tainted,” the statement added.
The IPOB spokesperson also faulted comparisons between Kanu and Simon Ekpa, insisting that “no evidence links Kanu to any act of violence,” while calling the ongoing prosecution a “courtroom circus sustained by lies and disobedience to court orders.”
Defending activist Omoyele Sowore’s calls for Kanu’s release, IPOB said the attacks on Sowore “show fear, not strength,” and described demands for Kanu to show “remorse” as “absurd,” since he has not been convicted of any offence.
Calling for a “political solution,” IPOB urged the Nigerian government to invoke constitutional powers of amnesty or discontinuance in the public interest. “A political solution is not weakness — it is wisdom,” the group said.
Concluding the statement, Emma Powerful asserted that propaganda cannot erase the truth about Kanu’s case: “From illegal proscription to unlawful rendition, the state has built its case on sand. Nigeria’s conscience is not for sale.”