‘IPOB reaffirmed me as its lawyer’ – Ifeanyi Ejiofor insists

Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor has insisted that he voluntarily withdrew from representing the jailed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, in December 2023, nearly three years before Kanu’s recent directive terminating his legal services.

Ejiofor made the clarification in a statement issued on Tuesday, days after Kanu announced from the Sokoto Correctional Centre that the lawyer should no longer represent him, his family or IPOB in any capacity.

The senior lawyer maintained that he had not acted as Kanu’s personal counsel, family lawyer or legal representative since December 2023, describing any suggestion to the contrary as a deliberate distortion of the facts.

According to him, his law firm has, however, remained under a valid and continuous retainer as solicitors to IPOB, a role through which it has secured the discharge and acquittal of more than 200 alleged IPOB members in courts across Abuja, Ebonyi and Abia states between December 2023 and 2025.

Ejiofor stressed that Kanu never independently appointed his firm as solicitors to IPOB, explaining that the separatist leader’s involvement in their engagement was limited to his personal legal representation, from which he said he had already disengaged.

He further disclosed that IPOB had reaffirmed his law firm’s status as the organisation’s solicitors and legal representatives, insisting that the professional relationship remained valid and could not be altered by what he described as former leaders of the group.

“It is equally important to place on record that IPOB, as an organisation, has today reaffirmed our standing as its solicitors and legal representatives. That professional relationship is founded upon a continuing mandate and cannot be retrospectively altered, invalidated, or otherwise dictated by its former leaders,” he said.

Ejiofor also questioned the authenticity of communications purportedly issued by inmates, citing provisions of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act.

He argued that any correspondence originating from a correctional facility must be properly authenticated by the officer in charge of the facility, warning lawyers and members of the public against relying on unauthorised communications allegedly emanating from inmates.

The clarification followed Kanu’s July 22 letter formally terminating Ejiofor’s services as his personal lawyer and withdrawing any authority previously granted to him to represent IPOB.

In the letter, Kanu directed Ejiofor to stop representing him, his family or IPOB, cease issuing public statements on their behalf, and withdraw from all pending matters where he remained counsel on record.

Kanu also warned that any unauthorised disclosure of confidential information obtained during the course of the legal representation could amount to professional misconduct and attract disciplinary action before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee.