Some residents of Afarukwu in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State, on Monday, staged a peaceful protest to demand the immediate release of the imprisoned leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
The demonstrators marched through major roads in the community, carrying banners and chanting solidarity songs in support of the IPOB leader.
Video clips of the protest shared on X by Kanu’s special counsel, Alloy Ejimakor, showed large crowds of men and women dressed in traditional attire, red caps and headgear, singing in Igbo: “Nnamdi Kanu bu onyendu anyi, onyendu ka anyi na-eso,” which translates into English as, “Nnamdi Kanu is our leader, and he is the man we follow.”
The protesters also displayed a large banner bearing the inscription: “IPOB Abia State Chapter Declares the Only IPOB Supreme Leader and Director of Radio Biafra: Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu.”
Commenting on the demonstration, Ejimakor urged South-East governors to intervene by pursuing a political resolution to Kanu’s case.
“As Abia State marches today in the legions for #FreeNnamdiKanu, SE Governors must rise together & impress on President Tinubu to do the right thing by resolving this matter outside of the judicial realm. Despite the unjust conviction, this matter was political from day one,” he wrote.
The renewed protest comes amid continued controversy surrounding Kanu’s conviction, with legal practitioners and rights advocates in the South-East maintaining that the matter should be resolved politically rather than through prolonged litigation.
Kanu is currently serving a life sentence term at a Nigerian Correctional Service facility in Sokoto. In November 2025, he was convicted by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja on terrorism-related charges stemming from his separatist agitation for an independent Biafra.
The IPOB leader and his supporters have consistently denied the allegations.
While his appeal is still before the Court of Appeal in Abuja, community leaders and civil society groups in Abia State have continued to call on President Bola Tinubu’s administration to adopt a political solution, arguing that such a move would help promote peace and stability across the South-East.
Recently, a United States Congressman, John James, moved a motion on the floor of US Congress for the immediate release of the IPOB leader.
James, who claimed that Nigeria is the deadliest place on earth to be a Christian, called on the Nigerian government to conduct another trial on Nnamdi Kanu in accordance with its own constitution, based on evidence, with access to legal counsel, medical care, and international law pertaining to humane conditions of detention.
He alleged that since 2019, many Christians in Nigeria have been slaughtered as part of a sustained pattern of religiously motivated violence by Islamist Jihadists, ignored or enabled by the Nigerian government.
According to him, extremist groups like Boko Haram are allowed to operate without any meaningful response from authorities.
The lawmaker further said Kanu was convicted in a false show trial for speaking out about what was happening in Nigeria.