IPOB drags Gov Wike to ICC over Obigbo massacre

Proscribed Igbo separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has dragged Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the 2020 killings of Igbo people in Oyigbo community in the state.

The incident happened in 2020 in the community which is a major Igbo settlement in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State, during the #EndSARS protests which was hijacked by hoodlums.

According to claims by IPOB, Wike allegedly invited soldiers into the community and they systematically attacked Igbo youths and killed some on allegations that they had clashed with youths from the north.

Read also: IPOB slams Wike over ‘hypocritical support’ of Biafra agitation

The soldiers were also alleged to have gone from house to house in search of Igbo youths who were branded IPOB members.

The crisis had forced the Rivers Governor to make a statewide broadcast outlawing IPOB in the state and also imposed a curfew on the entire Oyigbo council area.

He went further by placing a N50 million bounty on the IPOB leader in the area.

The group which has continued to claim that the victims were singled out and killed for being IPOB member, fined a formal complaint with the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the ICC on Thursday through its UK based lawyer, Bruce Fein, and addressed to the ICC Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, at The Hague in the Netherlands.

In the petition which was posted on the Twitter handle of Aloy Ejimakor, the lead counsel to leader of IPOB, Nnamd Kanu, is asking the ICC to charge Wike with genocide and crimes against humanity targeted at Biafrans.

Part of the petition sent to the ICC dated September 29, reads:

“Submission of Bruce Fein, international lawyer and spokesman for Nnamdi Kanu, leader, Indigenous People of Biafra charging Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike of Rivers State Nigeria with conspiracy, genocide, and crimes against humanity against Biafrans by knowing particpation in protracted and systematic murder, extermination, starvation, denial of necessary medical care and shelter, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, rape, theft, and persecution based on political opinion, religion, or ethnicity.”

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