Ipob – Biafra: Nigerian ”media warriors” accused of murder on social networks

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“Pursue these powerful saboteurs… These are the people who must be beheaded. These are the people who must be burned to ashes,” she said.

It calls for attacks against those seen as enemies of Biafra’s independence campaign, who are creating a breakaway state in southeastern Nigeria.

The campaign a bloody story.

In 1967, separatists from the predominantly ethnic Igbo region declared the independence of the Republic of Biafra. They fought and lost a three-year civil war against the Nigerian government in which over a million people died, mostly on the separatist side.

More than half a century later, social media is a new frontline for those who continue the struggle.

Ms. Uwanogho is one of them. She is a so-called “media warrior” for the separatist group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob).

It broadcasts from Italy, out of reach of the Nigerian authorities. In Nigeria, Ipob has been banned and designated a terrorist group. Ipob insists this is a peaceful movement.

The BBC investigation revealed many other influential Ipob supporters also operating outside the country, openly promoting misinformation and inciting violence on social media across Europe, the United States. States, Asia and other parts of Africa.

Nigerian investigative journalist Nicholas Ibekwe describes the group’s online operation as an “organized troll farm”.

“Social media has been Ipob’s most effective tool in achieving most of what he wants to achieve today,” he says.

Some of the group’s supporters have as many as 100,000 social media followers.

We don’t know if any of Ms Uwanogho’s supporters have taken action based on her online calls for violence against officials in southeastern Nigeria.

Ms Uwanogho did not respond to a request for comment on the story.

But on the ground, the violence is real, with dozens of officials killed in attacks already this year in violence described by President Muhammadi Buhari as “deeply agonizing”.

Nneka Igwenagu is another ‘media warrior’ fighting for the cause of Biafra, based in the UK.

In a Facebook live broadcast from London in late 2021, she targets a group of young people in Anambra, southeastern Nigeria, who had resisted pressure from Ipob for locals to close businesses and schools in solidarity with the detained leader of the group, Nnamdi Kanu.

Mr Kanu is currently being held by Nigerian authorities and faces terrorism charges, which he denies.

Speaking in Igbo, the most widely spoken language in southeastern Nigeria, Ms Igwenagu calls them “chickens”, saying:

“You’re not all supposed to be alive… A hen that ate her eggs, can’t you see she’s not supposed to live?”

A few weeks after the show, the leader of the youth group she was referring to was shot and killed. No one has been charged for his death.

We contacted Ms Igwenagu for a comment on this survey, but received no response.

One of the ways media warriors try to avoid censorship is to switch to less well-reduced local languages.

This tactic is made explicit in a video we found. Okenna Okechukwu, also known as the Child of Biafra, speaks in Igbo when calling for the beheading of a critic, before switching to English and explaining to his followers:

“Why I say this in my dialect is because I don’t want them to stop me. I don’t want them to block me on this page.”

David Ajoki, Nigerian editor of fact-checking organization Africa Check, says the lack of moderation of extreme content in local languages ​​is a major problem, not limited to Nigeria.

“We’ve also seen this in India, Ethiopia, where crises happen, people use the local language because they know if they use English they will be flagged and removed from the platform.”

Despite the violent nature of many of the online posts we found, moderation by social media platforms is inconsistent.

In line with Facebook’s own process, our team has flagged broadcasts by Efe Uwanogho and Nneka Igwenagu to contain violent content. First we received a notification that the platform had decided not to take down the videos.

It was only later, when the BBC shared the links to the posts directly with Facebook, that they were removed. But violent broadcasts from the same accounts, as well as others, remained online at the time of publication.

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, told us in a statement that calling for violence on its platform is unacceptable. He said he had 15,000 people reviewing content in over 70 languages ​​- including Igbo.

Our investigation also revealed that Ipob supporters were spreading disinformation to ease tensions between different ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Media warriors oppose people from the Igbo ethnic group, who are mainly Christian and from the south, and those from the Fulani ethnic group, who are mainly Muslim and from the north.

In another Facebook live broadcast, Ms Igwenagu warns her followers that Fulani herders who have moved to ‘Biafraland’ are on a ‘mission…to exterminate, kill, maim, eliminate us all’.

Although there have been clashes between Fulani herders and communities in the southeast, there is no evidence of the type of plot alleged by Ms Igwenagu and others.

This violent rhetoric may be motivated by a desire for independence from Biafra, but our investigation also found evidence of financial incentives for those involved.

We have found videos in which media warriors have admitted to being paid, either by Ipob or by supporters, for the work they do and we have seen other shows in which Ipob’s bank details were shared to solicit donations from subscribers.

Journalist Nicholas Ibekwe is among those criticizing social media companies for tackling violent threats made on their platforms.

“It looks like Facebook has really fallen asleep. He doesn’t think these comments, these posts that they make on Facebook have any consequences.”

Meanwhile, attacks continue on the ground.

On April 30, Nigerian soldiers Audu Linus and Gloria Matthew were on their way to marry in a traditional ceremony in Imo State when they were abducted, tortured and killed by unidentified assailants.

Footage showing the couple’s murder, which the Nigerian president blamed on Ipob, later went viral.

A conspiracy theory was later widely shared by some Ipob supporters claiming the footage was not real and the soldiers’ deaths were staged.

The BBC independently confirmed the death of the two soldiers along with members of their family.

Ipob denied any involvement in the murder.

We have contacted Ipob management with our findings from this investigation. Management responded, but did not provide a response.

We reached out to all of the “media warriors” featured in this story for comment, but received no response.