IPOB: They demanded for my phone and threatened to behead me if I was claiming what I’m not-Uzoatu

A Sun News publication dated November 23, 2025, quoted Chief Ebere Uzoatu, a lawyer based in Abia State, as asserting that Simon Ekpa was responsible for all the unlawful acts carried out under the banner of the Biafra struggle.

Uzoatu expressed approval of Ekpa’s imprisonment in Finland, remarking that the Finnish government had done “a great service.” He insisted that many offences previously blamed on IPOB were actually orchestrated by Ekpa. He recounted a frightening encounter at Ndi Imoko, near Arondizuogu in Imo State, where members of the PLA nearly assaulted him. According to him, he managed to escape danger by presenting himself as an attorney representing IPOB and advocating for Biafra, saying divine intervention saved him.

He went on to narrate how the armed group demanded his phone and warned him of consequences if he turned out to be an impostor. After confirming his explanation, they allowed him to go unharmed and even fired celebratory shots as he departed. Uzoatu noted a stark difference between IPOB’s activities under Nnamdi Kanu and the actions associated with Ekpa, implying that the latter’s approach had brought significant trouble.

According to him, “Simon Ekpa was the mastermind of every criminal activity executed in the name of the Biafran movement, even though these acts were being linked to IPOB.”

Hear him speak: “They demanded for my phone and threatened to behead me if I was claiming what I’m not. They scrolled it and saw that two or three years ago, I was at the Federal High Court, Abuja to defend the Igbo nation in a lawsuit. On finding this out, they fired two gunshots into the air to salute me, and thereafter released me, unhurt. So, the way IPOB is being led by Nnamdi Kanu, it is not a terrorist organization, but when we talk about the one led by Ekpa, that is a different ball game.”

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