REWIND: In 2024, IPOB official met US lawmaker Ted Cruz to discuss Biafra independence

Ted Cruz, a United States senator, was among officials the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) once met to advance its separatist agenda.

IPOB is seeking the excision of a Biafra nation from south-east Nigeria.

In 2017, the Nigerian government proscribed IPOB and labelled the group a “militant terrorist organisation” after the Eastern Security Network (ESN), its armed wing, was accused of killings and violence.

In 2024, Simon Ekpa, a self-acclaimed disciple of Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB leader, said Ogechukwu Nkere, Biafra “finance minister”, met with Cruz.

Ekpa is currently serving a six-year prison term in Finland for inciting terrorism and participating in the activities of a terrorist group.

“Minister Nkere briefed the Senator on Biafra’s progress towards independence, including activities such as the self-referendum, as well as the Nigerian government’s persecution of Biafrans and ties to Islamic terrorist groups,” Ekpa said in an X post, alongside a photo of Nkere and Cruz.

“At the end of the meeting, Minister Nkere handed the Senator the Biafra charter and Biafra pin.”

CRUZ, IPOB, AND RENEWED CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION CLAIMS

Cruz has been lobbying for sanctions and military action in Nigeria over claims of an ongoing persecution of Christians in the country.

Last month, he proposed a bill that seeks to protect “persecuted” Christians in Nigeria and hold Nigerian government officials accountable for “facilitating the mass murder”.

In a separate investigation, TheCable found the hashtag #biafraexitnow, featuring prominently in the online discourse around the Christian genocide claims.

Analysis of datasets also showed that keywords supportive of Biafra and Kanu appeared frequently in author bios.

TheCable also found that much of the data cited by US lawmakers and other genocide claimants came from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a pro-Christian civil rights group known for promoting sectional interests.

Cable Check, TheCable’s fact-checking arm, found the figures quoted in the report to be false.

Emeka Umeagbalasi, Intersociety’s founder, also repeatedly voiced support for Biafra and Kanu.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorist thugs attacking our cherished Christians!”