By Marcus Ikechukwu
The British government has designated the Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB as a terrorist organisation.
The development finally aligns with the Nigerian government initial classification of IPOB as a terrorist organisation, following widespread killings and acts of lawlessness recorded in the past.
Elendu Reports recalls that the Nigerian government had designated IPOB a terrorist group in 2017.
But some foreign countries, including UK, which IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, holds its passport, did not acknowledge the declaration at the time.
It is speculated that because the outlawed group beheaded an army couple, who were on their way to Imo State for their traditional wedding, UK may have acknowledged IPOB as a terrorist organisation, directing that it should be excluded from its asylum programme.
Although the killing, which sparked nationwide outrage, was not among the atrocities of the Nnamdi Kanu-led terror group the UK listed in its policy review document, the action was taken a few days after the murder.
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 party chieftain was killed; attack on an Imo Police Station where an officer was killed; killing of Anambra residents during enforcement of ”sit-at-home” order; killing of some policemen en route to Anambra International Airport, among others.
All these attacks happened in January 2022 alone.
Last year, UKVI had released new guidelines to its decision makers on how to consider and grant asylum applications to IPOB.
