IPOB suspends Nnamdi Kanu over ‘unguarded utterances’

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) says it has indefinitely suspended its leader Nnamdi Kanu.

The proscribed group added that Kanu has also been delisted as director of Radio Biafra in a bid to reposition the organisation and strengthen its operations.

The decision was contained in a statement issued on Thursday by Chikadibia Edoziem, head of the directorate of state (DOS), IPOB’s highest decision-making body.

The group said IPOB was established as a self-determination movement “formed and nurtured by Biafrans in the diaspora”, and not by any individual, for the restoration of a sovereign Biafra.

It said no individual has the authority to dissolve its central leadership structure.

Edoziem said the decision to suspend Kanu was reached at a DOS meeting on June 17 after reviewing an intelligence report from “IPOB’s M-Branch” about a meeting involving Kanu and officers of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) in Sokoto prison.

He said the DOS noted that Kanu’s movements and communications are monitored by the DSS, and that some prison communications have led to arrests and deaths of IPOB members.