IPOB slams Mbah over disruption of opposition rallies in Enugu, insists on election boycott

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has slammed Enugu State governor, Peter Mbah, over the disruption of rallies held by opposition parties by suspected political thugs in the state.

IPOB condemned the development in the weekly address by Mazi Chris Nwaọgụ, Head, Fourth Administrationof the Directorate of State, DOS.

On September 12, 2026, suspected political thugs attacked members of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, during a rally in the Ndiuno-Obuoffia community, Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State.

The pro-Biafra group, which also reacted to recent developments in different parts of the country, stated that what is happening in Enugu is unacceptable.

Nwaogu said, “What is happening in Enugu is unacceptable. Governor Peter Mbah’s political space has become a theatre of thugs disrupting rallies and ward meetings of opponents. Opposition gatherings in Nkanu West have been invaded. People have been shot. Canopies and chairs have been destroyed. The police confirm attacks. The APC denies everything. The pattern is what matters.

“Let me say this clearly, so nobody hijacks our name: IPOB is against every form of violence. The use of criminal elements to intimidate political opponents will be put to an end in the coming days. That is not campaign language. That is a warning.”

Nwaogu insisted that IPOB will boycott the 2027 election, following the refusal of the Nigerian government to list and hear the appeal filed by its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, to challenge his conviction.

“IPOB will boycott the general elections in January. A boycott is not a licence to disrupt rallies. A boycott is not a licence to unleash thugs. That is the same script the APC government used to demonise IPOB over Monday sit-at-home. They created chaos, blamed us, and sold the lie to the world. That will not be allowed to happen again.

“The method we will use to ensure compliance with the election boycott will be revealed nearer the time — precisely so that desperate politicians cannot hijack a noble cause and turn it into mayhem, as they have always done. Stay disciplined. Do not give them the riot they are praying for. ESN remains the shield. The family remains the support,” Nwaogu added.

Further declaring that the boycott is not a threat but a promise, Nwaogu advised that anybody who wants it called off should stop talking to IPOB and talk to the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government.

“Tell them to list and hear Onyendu’s appeal. Time is going,” he warned.

“If they refuse, there will be a total boycott of the coming elections across Biafraland and beyond. Let the world know the truth of the pending appeal and the suit before the Supreme Court. The Nigerian government and the complicit judiciary have abandoned those processes. They have not listed the appeal. They have not joined issues. They have not stepped into the courtroom.

“They did not abandon the case because they are busy. They abandoned it because they know they can never defeat Onyendu in a court of law. So they chose silence.

Silence is not strength. Silence is fear.

Any day Nigeria stops being a lying coward and steps into that courtroom, the judicial edifice it has built around this matter will collapse. The only thing waiting for it there is the truth.

“Section 36(12) has already answered the question. No written law defining the offence and prescribing the punishment — no conviction,” he added.

IPOB, in the same vein, condemned the death of 37 arrested suspected illegal miners in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in Niger State. According to the group, the incident demonstrated what the Nigerian state does when it holds young people and answers to nobody.

“Thirty-seven young men — some barely more than children — were arrested in Niger State on suspicion of illegal mining. Within hours they were dead in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Minna.

“Survivors spoke of a packed cell, no air, and a substance sprayed before the door was slammed. Families found bodies at the general hospital. Protesters were met with gunfire,” it stated, describing the development as not law enforcement but wasting of young lives without remorse and, so far, without real accountability.

Addressing IPOB members, Nwaogu noted that only two things still matter – “the freedom of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and of all those detained at home and abroad, and the restoration of Biafra”.

Highlighting recent developments in the diplomatic campaign for Kanu’s freedom, Nwaogu observed that a high-ranking member of the Israeli Knesset, MK Afef Abed, has written to the United Nations demanding the implementation of Opinion No. 25/2022 — the UN finding that Kanu’s detention is arbitrary, that Kenya and Nigeria must remedy it without delay, and that the proper remedy is immediate release, compensation and investigation of the rendition from Kenya.

According to him, the Fourth Administration of the DOS will take Biafrans into the promised land.

Stressing that propaganda will not divide IPOB, Nwaogu declared that those manufacturing factions in the organization are not building Biafra but are being sponsored traitors.

While condemning what he described as the illegal proscription of IPOB, he added that the group is appealing the conviction and imprisonment of members, who are currently held in various jails across the country.