The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has dissociated the Biafra movement from the recent abduction and alleged staged “rescue” of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in Imo State.

In a statement issued over the weekend, IPOB’s spokesperson and Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, condemned the incident.

IPOB said, “Any attempt to link Biafra agitators to the kidnapping of innocent youth corps members is a calculated falsehood meant to demonise our movement.”

Powerful said it was no coincidence that Imo State remained the sole epicentre of such incidents across the South-East and South-South regions.

The group, citing intelligence gathered through its M-Branch, accused Governor Hope Uzodimma of actively manipulating the state’s security architecture for political survival.

IPOB said, “Facing heavy political friction from Minister Nyesom Wike and seeking to ingratiate himself with President Bola Tinubu, Uzodimma is desperate to frame himself as an indispensable security champion in the region.”

According to Powerful, Uzodimma’s political ambitions and alleged manoeuvres were driven by a plot to position himself for the Senate presidency.

He said, “To achieve this ambition, along with other Igbo politicians who fear that the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will render them politically obsolete, he is willing to sacrifice the peace and safety of the region.”

The group expressed concern over what it described as a suspicious pattern in which military personnel allegedly abandoned key checkpoints across Imo State, creating security vacuums.

It claimed that these gaps were systematically filled by politically sponsored militias and armed groups tasked with staging attacks, abductions and extortion schemes involving ransom payments, all allegedly designed to be blamed on IPOB.

IPOB reiterated its intention to boycott elections, adding that the specific, peaceful approach to the boycott would be announced closer to the time.

Powerful said, “Criminal elements and state-sponsored agents who previously hijacked Monday sit-at-homes are now using the cover of ‘IPOB said they will boycott’ to unleash criminality and frame our peaceful movement.”

According to him, IPOB does not target civilians, students or NYSC members. He insisted that the group’s struggle was a peaceful, legally anchored quest for self-determination through a referendum.

The group therefore demanded an immediate, open and independent international investigation into the abductions along the Onitsha–Owerri axis and the financial trails of the ransom payments involved.

It urged the public and the international community to look beyond what it described as political theatre orchestrated from Owerri. (Sunday Tribune)