- Security Operatives Raid Their Homes, Harass And Intimidate Their Families
By Chinelo Ogbodo (Enugu State Correspondent)
Suspected major financiers and supporters of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a secessionist movement in Nigeria, associated with Igbo nationalism, which supports the recreation of an independent state of Biafra, are now on the run, for their safety and fear of their lives.
They are said to be hunted by Nigeria's security agents for their alleged roles in financing the renowned pro-Biafra group in Nigeria. They are suspected to have fled to different countries in desperate search for asylum.
Nigerian NewsLeader Newspaper Correspondent gathered that among the notable fleeing IPOB leaders and heavy financiers of the group in their localities are Messers Gabriel Faith Mbe, Cletus Ujam and Chikezie Okoro.
While Ujam and Okoro were said to hail from Nkanu and Nsukka areas of East and North Senatorial districts of Enugu state, Mbe hails from Ndukwe in Afikpo Local Government Area of Ebonyi state South Senatorial district, all in South East, Nigeria. They have been having several brushes with the Nigerian Security agents particularly the Army, Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) over their alleged financial and sundry supports for the Igbo Biafra separatist agitators whose supreme leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has been put away in the detention facility of the DSS in Abuja, for several years now.
Among the fleeing IPOB leaders, Nigerian NewsLeader Newspaper Correspondent found out that Mr Gabriel Mbe's case is of great interest to the Nigerian Security Operatives, ostensibly due to his alleged prominent role in the financing and sundry support of the pro-Biafran Movement.
Mbe's trouble, in particular, was said to have started when the Nigeria's State Security discovered that he is a leading financial oxygen of the IPOB group and has been enabling the group in diverse ways, within and outside his locality, in their quest for justice and fair deal for the Igbo people of the South East, Nigeria.
This newspaper also learnt from dependable sources within IPOB that Mr Mbe and Mr Ujam, particularly, have been in the secret vanguard for the release of the detained IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, whose health situation is said to have badly deteriorated in recent times in DSS cell.
Mbe, alleged to be somewhat of an arrow head among the group's facilitators and enabling force, has been found to be indulging in covert activities to get the IPOB leader (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu) released from government detention. His clandestine activities in this respect may have given impetus to the current national campaign and agitation in Nigeria to compel the Nigerian authorities to unconditionally free Kanu from political captivity.
It is not clear as at press time which countries the wanted IPOB leaders are hibernating. Nigerian NewsLeader Newspaper gathered from close sources within IPOB, that Ujam may have fled to one of the South American countries, while Mbe and Okoro may have successfully escaped to European countries for safety. Further investigation on the exact whereabout of the three men, revealed that the Biafran freedom fighters may have been hiding somewhere in France, Turkey, Italy, Brazil or Argentina.
According to findings by Nigerian NewsLeader Newspaper, the IPOB Chieftains have had a long link with the pro-Biafra secessionist movement. For instance, while at the University, two of their alleged leading lights, Mr Gabriel Mbe and Mr Cletus Ujam, were said to have been visible members of the defunct Chief Ralph Uwazuruike led Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). The group was a precursor of the present Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, both of which are organizations advocating for the rights and self-determination agenda of the Igbo people of South East, Nigeria. In his student days, NewsLeader Newspaper learnt that Mbe, especially, was said to have participated in student meetings and Campus campaigns. Upon graduation, he taught briefly as a teacher in both Nigeria and Ghana before venturing into import and export business in Turkey, shuttling between Nigeria and some European countries. However, the extent of Ujam and Okoro's early activities within the pro-Biafra groups, could not be immediately ascertained.
The wanted IPOB henchmen are said to be presently traumatized by their unfortunate ordeals in the hands of the Nigerian Security Organization for their roles in the fight for justice, human rights and freedom for self-determination by the Igbo people of Nigeria through the instrumentality of Biafra. For Mbe who is a father of four, and who appears to be the most desperately wanted by the state authorities in Nigeria, his support for the Biafran agitation has equally been demonstrated through his incessant funding of the group and his several participation in their peaceful demonstrations. He has severally undergone the worst form of harassments, arrests, torture and detention in the hands of state agents in the cause of his struggle for self-determination of the Igbo people of Nigeria.
For instance, NewsLeader Newspaper gathered that sometime in late August, 2020, during an IPOB gathering at the Practicing School, Emene, in Enugu state, Nigeria, a combined team of the Nigerian Soldiers, Policemen and Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) had attacked the meeting. Several people including a young man identified as Chuka Ogbuoji were reportedly killed, and many other IPOB members, including Gabriel Mbe and Chikezie Okoro, were promptly arrested. The two men and some other ring leaders of IPOB Movement were said to have been taken to the 82 Division Army headquarter in Enugu, where they were allegedly detained for three months. They were allegedly tortured and forced to renounce their IPOB membership.
An IPOB source told our Correspondent that Mr Mbe and some of those arrested IPOB leaders were "never charged for any specific offence or taken to court. Their release came only after the intervention by some NGOs and the public outcry by Amnesty International about the continued detention of peaceful agitators .
The IPOB source also stated that following the release of the members of the Biafran Movement from alleged torture and detention, Mr Mbe was said to be hospitalized and treated for various illnesses which he allegedly contracted while in detention. But after recovery, he traveled to Turkey to resume his import business, though still continued to support the IPOB organization due to his belief in the group's peaceful struggle for justice and self-determination.
However, in May 2023, Mr Mbe and Mr Ujam and some of the IPOB staunch members had another unfortunate brush with some agents of the Nigerian state authority who were fiercely opposed to the existence of IPOB. On his return from Turkey to address the growing threat of alleged Fulani terrorist herders who were destroying farmlands in his community, Gabriel Mbe was again picked up for publicly advocating for the removal of the Fulani militants from the farmlands owned by his people and for his continued participation in IPOB meetings that focused on the illegal detention of the group's leader, Mr Nnamdi Kanu, despite several court orders granting his release.
Again, in mid July, 2023, while returning from planting fruits in his home situated in Emene, Enugu Estate, the IPOB major financier (Mbe) was allegedly kidnapped by unknown people who requested for a ransome payment of N20 million. His captors curiously accused him of being an IPOB member and labeled him an infidel. They were said to have greatly tortured and molested him for four days.
Nigerian NewsLeader Newspaper obtained from reliably family and IPOB sources that his family and friends actually managed to raise the ransome ₦20,000,000 (twenty million naira) to secure his release.
The incident was said to have left Mbe further and deeply traumatized, but he still continued to speak out against injustice and government arm-twisting and bias toward armed groups in Nigeria.
But beyond freedom agitation, some of the fleeing IPOB leaders are found to be individuals with profound commitment to communal development initiatives despite a plethora of threats to their lives. In October 2023, this newspaper gathered from community sources that Gabriel Mbe singlehandedly launched a rural solar electrification project in his village, installing over 30 solar street lights to improve security in an area that had been without electricity for over 50 years. After the project, we learnt that he returned to Turkey to continue his business. Upon his return to Nigeria in early July 2025, members of the IPOB executives in his zone allegedly met with him and some other financial backers of the group at his house to discuss the possibility of sending a delegation of lobbyists to urge the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA to include Nnamdi Kanu’s case in its conference agenda and post-confab communique. This move however infuriated the Nigeria's security agents who allegedly acted on orders from above to further hunt down the IPOB financier, Gabriel Mbe.
Based on a desperate fresh manhunt for him and others by the state agents, the IPOB men were said to have fled Nigeria to different countries. The security allegedly accused them of financing IPOB and also accused Mbe in particular of using his house to plan secessionist activities. His wife, it was learnt, was said to have been thoroughly harassed amidst alleged threats and promises to arrest her. The security agents reportedly came back sometime in the middle of September, 2025, allegedly armed and masked, and violently attacked his family. They were said to have beaten his wife and terrorized his children.
Nigerian NewsLeader Newspaper Correspondent learnt from a family source, that during the chaos that followed, Mr Mbe's youngest child, Arinzechukwu, suffered severe burns when hot oil spilled on him as he ran to hide in the kitchen. The rampaging officers allegedly ignored the young boy's cries and continued with their mission.
However, in the middle of September, 2025, Mbe's wife reportedly stumbled on news reports in some Nigerian online media declaring her husband (Gabriel Mbe) wanted by the police for allegedly financing the pro-Biafran group and collaborating with them.
Following their current unsafe situation and fear of return to Nigeria, Mr Mbe, as the most wanted man among the fleeing IPOB trio, is perhaps in a quandary as to what the future holds for him in Nigeria and in a foreign land where he and others had fled to for safety. Their situation is worsened by the fact that they have been sufficiently traumatized as a result of their arrests, torture, several kidnap attempts, and persecution which they had had to endure for their agitation and peaceful political activities and association with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Back home in Nigeria, their families continue to face harassments and numerous threats.
And given that the Nigerian government has classified IPOB as a 'terrorist organization', it is most likely that the return by Messers Gabriel Faith Mbe, Cletus Ujam and Chikezie Okoro to Nigeria now might be a colossal risk to their persons. They are most likely to be re-arrested, detained indefinitely, or even killed!
For fugitives of state persecution like the fleeing alleged IPOB financiers and agitators (Gabriel Mbe, Cletus Ujam and Chikezie Okoro), they will be living on borrowed time! NNL.
