<span style='font-size: 12pt;'><b>Full text of BBC documentary about Ipob.</b></span><br><br><b>Introduction</b><br>The video begins with Nneka Igwenagu saying, <b>"The Fulani soldiers, they are about to start killing Igbo saboteurs"</b> while the word "Disinformation" flashes on the screen.<br><br>Efe Uwanogho (aka Omote Biafra) says, <b>"These mighty mighty saboteurs should be get rid off"</b>.<br><br>One of the Ipob media warriors says, "The Eastern governors have sold you". <br><br>Uche Mefor says, "It is not even fighting against the enemy. It is now fighting and killing our own people". <br><br>Nicholas "The Brave" Ibekwe says, "But one thing they have been successful with is their disinformation campaign". <br><hr><br>The narrator says<br><br><blockquote>The BBC's disinformation unit has uncovered a network of Nigerians based outside the country who are deliberately spreading false information and violent rhetoric on social platforms, in an apparently coordinated effort to stoke ethnic tension and encourage the breakup of the country. <br><br>The investigation reveals what's being described as a troll farm operating across Europe, the United States, Asia and other African countries, using social media to fuel religious, political and ethnic unrest and encourage violent, even murderous acts.</blockquote><br>We see Efe Uwanogho (aka Omote Biafra) and she is shouting, "Let's go after the saboteurs in our midst".<br><br><blockquote>This is Efe Uwanogho, also known as Omote Biafra. She's a Nigerian based in Italy with 40,000 followers on Facebook. She's part of a group called the Indigenous People of Biafra, known as Ipob. <br><br>Ipob are a separatist group who want to create a country called Biafra from South East Nigeria. The Nigerian Government has banned Ipob and designated it a terror group. <br><br>Here the self proclaimed media warrior is calling out traditional rulers, members of the clergy and government officials in the South East. She is accusing them of colluding with the Nigerian Government, who she sees as the enemy and calling on her followers to take action against them.</blockquote><br>We can see and hear Omote Biafra shouting into the camera, <b>"Go after all these mighty mighty saboteurs. Leave all these saboteur ITK saboteurs, go with the mighty mighty saboteurs. Go after those ones. Those are the people that need to be beheaded. Those are the people that need to be burnt to ashes. Those are the people that their houses need to be invaded"!</b><br><br><blockquote>Like Efe, Nneka Igwenagu also aggressively stokes existing ethnic tension from outside Nigeria.</blockquote><br>We see Nneka Igwenagu in a video saying, "Immigration, both. . . "<br><br><blockquote>In this Facebook broadcast from London, she alleges a plot by the Fulani people and other Northerners resident in the South East to exterminate ethnic Igbos.</blockquote><br>We can hear Nneka Igwenagu saying, <b>"All of them they are into mission in our land, Biafra Land, eastern part of Nigeria. They have come in the name of to shine shoe, to do this, to do all sorts of odd jobs, but now they are into kidnapping. They said that it's fetching them more money. They are on mission to exterminate, kill, maim, wipe all of us".</b><br><br><blockquote>Although there have been violent clashes between Fulani herders and communities in the South East, there is no evidence for the sort of conspiracy that Mrs Igwenagu is alleging.<br><br>The self proclaimed Republic of Biafra broke away from the Nigerian state in 1967 following the Araba riots in which thousands of South Easterners living in the North of the country were killed. Biafra was made up of states from the South East of the country, where the Igbo ethnic group is predominant. <br><br>The withdrawal of the region from Nigeria led to a civil war that lasted almost 3 years and claimed more than a million lives, mostly on the separatist side. It ended in January 1970 with Nigeria promising to pursue a policy of reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation, which some from the region say never happened.</blockquote><br>They showed clips from the Civil War, then they switched to clips of Ipob fighters marching.<br><br><blockquote>For many the struggle continued. The idea of Biafra never went away.<br><br><span style='font-size: 12pt;'><b>The birth of Ipob</b></span></blockquote><br>They show a clip of Nnamdi Kanu in a studio. He is saying, "Nobody born from man or woman. . ."<br><br><blockquote>In 2013 the recently formed Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), led by Nnamdi Kanu, began broadcasts on Radio Biafra, calling again for a movement to gain independence from Nigeria. Campaigning on social media soon followed. <br><br>Uche Mefor, the co-founder and former deputy leader of Ipob takes credit for the group's move into the online space.</blockquote><br>Uche Mefor says, <b>"I was the brain behind the media aspect, especially the Internet technology. I set up this Radio Biafra you're talking about today. I set up the Internet version and the satellite platform that you are talking about today.</b><br><br><b>So it was at that period that we reasoned that the online platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter can give us leverage against the atrocities being committed against our people. And it actually has".</b><br><br><blockquote>Ipob says that its members have been victims of extra-judicial killings by security forces. <br><br>In 2016, Amnesty International reported that at least 150 peaceful pro-Biafra activists had been killed by security agencies in crackdowns. The Nigerian Government denied the claims. <br><br>However, Ipob members have gone beyond alerting others to claims of abuse and moved to direct calls for violence.</blockquote><br>We see various Ipob members making broadcasts. Then the video switches to Uche Mefor and he says, <b>"There were misinformation, but it was minimal at the time that I was there and I didn't keep quiet about it.</b><br><br><blockquote>In Nigeria Internet penetration is high and data is relatively cheap, providing a ready audience for those wanting to spread disinformation. <br><br>There is clearly an appetite for this violent rhetoric. Some Ipob media warriors have as many as a hundred thousand followers on Facebook. Many also have multiple pages. <br><br>Mrs Igwenagu has 4 Facebook pages, most of which she uses to broadcast disinformation and calls for violence almost exclusively in Igbo Language.</blockquote><br>We see a clip of Mrs Igwenagu. She is on a street in London as she makes her broadcast. She says (in Igbo), <b>"Ogidi youths, all of you that were involved in the protest, you are like a chicken that laid eggs, but after laying the eggs, breaks them open and proceeds to eat them. This is what you did. All of you are not supposed to be alive".</b><br><br><blockquote>This is her broadcast from London in late 2021. Her target are a youth group in Ogidi, a town in Anambra State. They had organised a march to protest Ipob's order that people shut down businesses and schools every Monday in solidarity with imprisoned Ipob leader, Nnamdi Kanu. <br><br>The Ogidi youth leader was also singled out by other Ipob supporters.</blockquote><br>We can see Simon Ekpa making a broadcast. He is saying, <b>". . .are not known to be coward. Ogidi. . ."</b><br><br><blockquote>Here is Finland based lawyer, Simon Ekpa, who has thousands of followers.</blockquote><br>Simon Ekpa says, <b>"Who ever. . .the president of the youths of Ogidi, who ever he is, where ever that he is coming from and who ever is paying him to bring pump action and start walking on the street, they should retract immediately. He should retract his steps and don't go further with this.</b><br><br><b>This is not a threat, but it is a fact".</b><br><br>They show the obituary poster of the president of the Ogidi youths association.<br><br><blockquote>A few weeks after these comments, the youth leader of Ogidi was shot and killed. Those responsible remain unidentified. <br><br>We contacted Simon Ekpa and Nneka Igwenagu for their comments. Mrs Igwenagu did not reply. Mr Ekpa replied, but declined to give a routine response.</blockquote><br>Continued below
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