The government of United Kingdom has accepted Nigeria’s classification of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist organization.
It should be recalled that the Nigerian government designated IPOB a terrorist group in 2017 after widespread killings and several acts of lawlessness.
At that time, some foreign countries like the UK, which IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, holds its passport, did not accept the declaration.
However, a few days after the group beheaded an army couple that was on their way to Imo State for their traditional wedding, the UK acknowledged IPOB as a terrorist organization and directed that it should be excluded from its asylum program.
The killing, which triggered nationwide outrage, was not part of the atrocities of the Nnamdi Kanu-led terror group the UK listed in its policy review document.
The acts of the terrorist group listed by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), a division of the British Home Office, were the invasion of an All Progressives Congress (APC) meeting in Enugu state where a chieftain of the party was killed; an attack on an Imo Police Station where an officer was killed; killing of Anambra residents during the enforcement of ”sit-at-home” order; killing of police officials en route to Anambra International Airport and others.
All these acts happened in January 2022 alone.
In 2021, UKVI released new guidelines to its decision-makers on how to consider and grant asylum applications to IPOB but in a recent update published on its website, UKVI made a U-turn.
In its policy notes, UKVI said: “IPOB is proscribed as a terrorist group by the Nigerian government, and members of the group and its paramilitary wing – the Eastern Security Network (created in December 2020) – have reportedly committed human rights violations in Nigeria.
“MASSOB has been banned but is not a proscribed terrorist group in Nigeria. It too has reportedly been involved in violent clashes with the authorities.
“If a person has been involved with IPOB (and/or an affiliated group), MASSOB, or any other ‘Biafran’ group that incites or uses violence to achieve its aims, decision makers must consider whether one (or more) of the exclusion clauses under the Refugee Convention is applicable.
“Persons who commit human rights violations must not be granted asylum.”
