A video has emerged online showing an alleged member of the Biafra Revolutionary Army, an armed group affiliated with the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), revealing the identities of the group’s suspected financial and logistical sponsors in Orlu, Imo State.
The video features a man dressed in military camouflage and holding a short gun, who claims that local political figures originally funded and equipped their operations before turning against them due to changing political dynamics.
In the footage, the speaker argues that the armed separationist group is being unfairly maligned by the same individuals who initially enabled them. He rejected the criminal labels given to his group, claiming that their political backers shifted the narrative to protect their own careers.
“It was them that turned against the men on the ground, calling them unknown gunmen,” the man states in the video. “Let me use this opportunity to address the international community and to address the Southeast and to address Southeast people, the Igbo people, that the Biafra Revolutionary Army is not a terrorist and there’s no way they would be a terrorist. I want to give you a names of the people who sponsored us, who equipped us, who encouraged us in all, but because of political interest, because of political manipulation, they turned against the men on the ground.”
iPOB, which was founded in 2012 by Nnamdi Kanu in a bid to restore the Republic of Biafra. The secessionist movement traces its roots back to the 1967–1970 Nigerian Civil War. Although that war ended decades ago, persistent feelings of political and economic marginalization in southeastern Nigeria led to the rise of pro-Biafra groups seeking self-determination.
The security situation in the region grew increasingly tense over the years, leading a Nigerian court to officially designate IPOB as a terrorist organization in 2017. Meanwhile, the leader of the movement, Nnamdi Kanu, who is in prison, continues to face terrorism-related charges.
