Directorate of State cites security concerns over alleged prison communications, assumes full control amid escalating internal rift

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has plunged deeper into internal crisis after announcing the suspension of the Office of its detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu, along with the position of Director of Radio Biafra.

The decision, taken at a full बैठक of the group’s Directorate of State (DOS) on Wednesday, was disclosed in a statement issued Thursday by the DOS head, Mazi Chikadibia Edoziem. The leadership said the move followed a review of intelligence reports concerning communications allegedly originating from Kanu while in detention in Sokoto.

According to the statement, the Directorate resolved to take over the full administration and affairs of the movement, stressing that IPOB is a collective project of Biafrans in the diaspora and not the creation of any single individual. It reaffirmed the DOS as the group’s highest decision-making body, insisting no one has the authority to dissolve it.

The group claimed that some communications linked to Kanu’s detention had exposed members to serious risks, including arrests and fatalities across the South-East. It also raised alarm over what it described as intense surveillance of Kanu’s visitors and activities by the Department of State Services (DSS), warning that sensitive information could be intercepted and misused.

IPOB further alleged that certain actors were plotting to form a new militia capable of reigniting violence in the region, a development it said necessitated urgent preventive action.

“The suspension is aimed at curbing reckless directives, unchecked authority and unguarded utterances capable of endangering our members,” the statement noted, adding that the organisation would no longer take responsibility for actions carried out in the name of the suspended office or by unrecognised actors.

The latest development underscores a widening leadership rift within IPOB. Reports had earlier indicated that Kanu moved to dissolve the third administration of the Directorate of State and announced a new leadership structure.

He was also said to have appointed US-based Mazi Chris Nwaọgụ to head a newly constituted DOS, directing him to immediately assume control of the group’s operations.

IPOB’s Directorate of State, created by Kanu in 2012 as the organisation’s administrative backbone, has been led by several figures across the diaspora, including Dr. Justin Akujieze, Mazi Uchenna Asiegbu and, most recently, Chika Edoziem, who took over during Kanu’s earlier detention in 2017.

With both factions asserting authority, the unfolding dispute signals a critical turning point for the separatist movement’s leadership and direction.