The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu has been set back with in-fighting which culminated in the formation of a splinter group called Biafra Customary Government set up by a former Niger Delta militant Asari Dokubo.
Dokubo raised tension on Sunday, March 14 when he announced the new group over the alleged ill-treatment the Igbo people have been subjected to in Nigeria.
The former militant teamed up with a former deputy leader of IPOB Uche Mefor in setting up the new group.
SB Morgan, an organisation focused on geopolitical research and strategic communications consulting firm focused around Africa in a report titled ‘Discord at Sunrise: What does Split in IPOB mean?’ explained the reasons for the split.
The report says that while Mr Kanu was absent at Dokubo’s inauguration, Ralph Uwazuruike, founder of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), another prominent group agitating for a Biafran state, was present.
It further says Mefor was forced out of IPOB after Kanu abolished the position of deputy leader following calls by a faction in the United Kingdom for financial account of the funds raised for the organisation.
The IPOB leader also scrapped the UK IPOB faction which was loyal to the Mefor.
Furthermore, SB Morgan reports that Mefor and his loyalists were against Kanu’s alleged violent style of leadership which has led to crisis between the Nigerian military and Eastern Security Network, an offshoot of IPOB, particularly in Orlu, Imo State.
“IPOB at the moment is seriously fractured, with many erstwhile key members now either with Mr Mefor or charting their own course. Mr Kanu is presently believed to be operating out of the United States, where a new bank account was recently unveiled, ostensibly to collect contributions for ESN,” the SB Morgan report says.
It concludes that the major challenge of the Dokubo-Mefor alliance would be finding a middle ground following alleged injustices meted to South-South people by Biafran soldiers during the civil war.
