For years, Nigeria’s South-east has become an epicentre of violence linked to the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed militant wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN).
IPOB is a group leading an agitation for an independent state of Biafra, which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south of Nigeria.
Its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is facing a terrorism trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Mr Kanu, a Nigerian-British citizen, was first arrested in 2015 under the administration of then-President Muhammadu Buhari.
The IPOB leader fled Nigeria in 2017 after Nigerian security forces invaded his family house in Afara-Ukwu, Abia State.
In June 2021, he was repatriated from Kenya to Nigeria under controversial circumstances.
The separatist group, in August 2021, declared a sit-at-home order to be observed every Monday across South-east and on other days, Mr Kanu appeared in court.
The illegal order was intended to protest Mr Kanu’s detention and pressure Nigeria’s government to release him.
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