3 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
At least four people were killed Monday in a bomb attack on the convoy of a former governor of the Nigerian state of Imo, located in the southeast of the country and the scene of an upsurge in attacks blamed on the separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
According to information collected by the Nigerian newspaper ‘The Premium Times’, former Governor Ikedi Ohakim was unharmed, although four police officers assigned to his escort died in the attack, carried out in the town of Ehime Mbano.
Ohakim, who was governor between 2007 and 2011, was returning from a visit with two of his sons at the time of the assault. Sources close to the politician have indicated that he was “the main objective” and have added that he was able to escape thanks to the driver’s maneuvers to get away from the place.
The IPOB has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in Imo in recent months, although it has not yet ruled on the incident.
The group, founded by Nnamdi Kanu in the United Kingdom in 2014 and declared a terrorist group by Abuja, has established itself as the voice of Biafrans, among other things thanks to Radio Biafra, which broadcasts from London to southeast Nigeria.
The Biafra region proclaimed its independence from Nigeria on May 30, 1967, triggering a bloody civil war that lasted for three years and left more than a million dead, mostly from starvation.