Biafran leader Nnamdi Kanu: The man behind Nigeria's separatists

             

After spending more than a year-and-a-half in a Nigerian jail without trial on treason charges, Nnamdi Kanu is now free on bail. The BBC's Stephanie Hegarty explains who Nwannekaenyi "Nnamdi" Kanu is and why he attracts so much controversy

Nnamdi Kanu founded the Indigenous People Of Biafra (Ipob) in 2014.
The movement wants a group of states in south-east Nigeria, made up mainly of people from the Igbo ethnic group, to break away and form the independent nation of Biafra.
The plan is not new. In 1967 Igbo leaders declared a Biafran state, but after a brutal civil war, which led to the deaths of up to a million people, the secessionist rebellion was defeated.
But the idea of separatism has bubbled away since then and Mr Kanu is the latest in a line of Biafran activists taking up the cause.

He was a relatively obscure figure until 2009 when he started Radio Biafra, a station that called for an independent state for the Igbo people and broadcast to Nigeria from London.
Though he grew up in Nigeria's south-east and went to the University of Nsukka, Mr Kanu moved to the UK before graduating.
Soon after setting up Ipob, he spoke to gatherings of the large Igbo diaspora, calling for Biafran independence. In some of his comments, he urged Biafrans to take up arms against the Nigerian state.
"We need guns and we need bullets," he said in one such address.
And that is what brought him to the attention of Nigeria's security services.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39793185