Nigeria Separatists Say They are Committed to Peaceful Self-determination After Leaders Sentenced

Separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu attends a court hearing on terrorism-related charges in Abuja, Nigeria, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025.

By DYEPKAZAH SHIBAYAN

6:16 AM EST, November 21, 2025

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The Indigenous People of Biafra, a separatist group in southeastern Nigeria, said Friday it remains committed to peaceful self-determination after a court sentenced its leader to life in prison for terrorism.

Nnamdi Kanu, founder of IPOB, was convicted and sentenced on Thursday.

IPOB has been accused of terrorism and extrajudicial killings in the country’s southeastern region where it has called for the creation of an independent state.

The separatist group condemned the sentence, claiming no weapons and “no attack plan” were ever found on Kanu and that the separatist leader did not commit any offenses under Nigerian or international law.

“We reaffirm our commitment to peaceful advocacy, international law and the pursuit of a United Nations–supervised referendum,” IPOB’s spokersperson, Emma Powerful, said in a statement.

The charges against Kanu, who has rejected the court’s authority, included carrying out acts of terrorism, issuing and violently enforcing stay-at-home orders that bring the southeastern region to a halt every Monday, giving guidance on how to make bombs to be used on government facilities, and incitement.

Judge James Omotosho told the court on Thursday that the “right to self-determination is a political right,” but he added that: “Any self-determination not done according to the constitution of Nigeria is illegal.”

Powerful said the violence in the southeast “is politically manufactured” and has nothing to do with Kanu, who has been in detention.

Another Nigerian separatist leader, Simon Ekpa, was convicted in Finland in September on charges including terrorism.

Ekpa, who is also a Finnish citizen, was sentenced to six years in prison for participating in the activities of a terrorist group, public incitement to commit a crime for terrorist purposes and aggravated tax fraud.