ABUJA – Nigerian police fired teargas and deployed security forces across key roads in Abuja on Monday to disperse protesters demanding the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement.

Kanu, a British citizen, is currently on trial on terrorism charges, which he denies. His supporters, who argue that his detention since 2021 is politically motivated, had called for nationwide demonstrations, prompting a heavy security response in the capital.

In central Abuja, heavily armed police officers backed by armoured vehicles and water cannon fired multiple rounds of teargas at crowds attempting to gather. In several districts, military personnel joined police patrols in a show of force aimed at deterring unrest.

Kanu leads IPOB, a separatist group advocating for the independence of southeastern Nigeria, where the Igbo ethnic group forms the majority. The government designated IPOB as a terrorist organization in 2017, a label the group and its supporters reject.

Kanu was first arrested in 2015 and later granted bail in 2017, but fled the country after security forces raided his home. He was rearrested in 2021 and has since faced trial on seven terrorism-related charges, which carry potential life sentences.

The agitation for Biafran independence evokes deep historical wounds in Nigeria. In 1967, the southeastern region attempted to secede as the Republic of Biafra, sparking a civil war that lasted three years and claimed more than one million lives—the same year Kanu was born.