The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has strongly reacted to comments attributed to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, over his remarks on the Biafra self-determination movement.
The group accused him of issuing a veiled threat and attempting to use federal power to suppress their agitation.
Akpabio was said to have spoken at the burial ceremony of a former Administrative Secretary of the defunct OMPADEC, Sir Albert Nnamani, in Ikem, Enugu State.
During the event, he urged leaders in the Southeast to discourage youths from taking up arms in pursuit of Biafra. He warned that any attempt to force separation from Nigeria through violence would fail.
He was quoted as saying:
“A situation whereby you try to wrest power and try to assert independence through armed struggle from the federal government will fail. The state power will always overwhelm you.”
The statement has since triggered backlash from IPOB, which dismissed the reference to “armed struggle” as misleading and inaccurate.
In a response issued by its spokesperson, Emma Powerful, IPOB insisted that its movement has never been violent and remains strictly focused on a referendum.
According to the group, “Let it be stated again, without ambiguity: IPOB is not engaged in armed struggle against Nigeria. IPOB’s position has never changed. IPOB is founded on one simple democratic demand: a referendum. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
The group described Akpabio’s comments as political intimidation disguised as peace advocacy. It argued that the remarks wrongly portrayed the agitation as violent when, according to them, it is rooted in democratic principles.
IPOB further stated that the push for self-determination is protected under both the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
“A referendum is not war. A referendum is not terrorism. A referendum is not armed struggle. A referendum is the most democratic expression of political will known to any civilised people.”
It added that sovereignty ultimately belongs to the people, and no political authority has the right to deny them a say in their future.
“The people of Biafra are not asking Akpabio for permission to exist. They are not asking Abuja for permission to think. They are not asking the Nigerian State for permission to decide their political future. That decision belongs exclusively to the people themselves.”
The group also accused the federal government and political elites of deliberately misrepresenting its position to justify repression. It maintained that its demand remains unchanged and purely political.
It said: “What IPOB will not do is surrender the inalienable right of our people because frightened political actors in Abuja are uncomfortable with the consequences of democratic choice.”
IPOB also argued that framing the movement as militancy is a strategy used to discredit its legitimacy after failing to counter its arguments on democratic grounds.
