News - South East
Updated: March 30, 2021

VIDEOS: How We Killed Soldiers, Police Officers – Youthful IPOB Member

By Ridwan Yusuf
March 30, 2021
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Raphael Idang, a 31-year-old member of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has narrated how he and other members of the outlawed group attacked and killed Nigerian soldiers and police officers unprovoked recently.

IPOB is a separatist group which wants to restore an independent state of Biafra in the South East region of Nigeria. The controversial group was founded in 2012 by diaspora-based Nnamdi Kanu.

Idang, from Odukpani, Cross River State, said he joined IPOB on March 17, 2020 and was recruited into its security arm, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) which was launched in December 2020, and has participated in the killing of close to a dozen security operatives, including four soldiers.

He was among the 16 suspects arrested recently by the police over the spates of attack on officers and police facilities in Nigeria, especially in the country’s South-east and South-south regions.

Idang’s confessional statement is contained in video clips posted on Twitter on Monday by the police on its verified handle.

The suspect, in the clips, described the attack on the military and police as “movement.”

He said his first “movement” was on January 21, 2020, where they attacked a police checkpoint on the road in Orlu, Imo State, killed two police officers, carted away three AK47 rifles and set ablaze a police patrol vehicle.

Idang said that particular “movement” was “accidental”, apparently because it was not a planned operation – he and his group met the police checkpoint while traveling from Onitsha in Anambra State to Orlu.

“The second movement I participated in was on 19th January, 2021 when the joint task force attacked us at our camp in Orlu, Imo State. One policeman was killed, but we did not recover his gun,” he said in the clip.

Idang said he and his “men” went on another “movement” on February 5, 2021 in Orlu where they killed two police officers, set fire to a police patrol vehicle, and fled with two AK47 rifles.

He also mentioned how they killed four Nigerian soldiers in January in Orlu and took away their rifles. The corpses of the four soldiers were recovered by the Nigerian Army in February, almost one month after the killing.

Two other police officers were killed at another location, he said.

Another clip posted by the police showed another IPOB member making a confessional statement.

The member, Ugochukwu Samuel, otherwise known as Biggy, is 28 years old. He hails from Arochukwu Local Government Area in Abia State.

Samuel said he is the second in command of a special squad in the ESN and has participated in the killing of police officers.

He said he sustained gunshot injury during the exchange of gunfire with soldiers on the day the four soldiers were killed in Orlu, and that he was later arrested at a hospital in Awka, Anambra State, where he went to treat the injury.

Arrested IPOB members Suspects Ugochukwu Samuel (r) and Raphael Idang

The video containing Samuel’s confessional statement is split into two, with one part showing him in his happy moment, smoking inside a bush, with a man armed with a rifle standing behind him.

The police in a recent statement said they were closing in on other suspects implicated in the attacks against officers and police facilities around the country.

UNPROVOKED KILLINGS OF SECURITY OPERATIVES: POLICE ARREST 16, RECOVER ARMS, AMMUNITION, EXPLOSIVES
•No murderer will go unpunished…we are closing up on them, says IGP. pic.twitter.com/1b0zj8ohKw
— Nigeria Police Force (@PoliceNG) March 29, 2021

Watch confessional statements from the suspects below:

UNPROVOKED KILLINGS OF SECURITY OPERATIVES: POLICE ARREST 16, RECOVER ARMS, AMMUNITION, EXPLOSIVES.

PART 1: Watch Confessional statement made by the suspect pic.twitter.com/kDKPpKkpd7
— Nigeria Police Force (@PoliceNG) March 29, 2021

UNPROVOKED KILLINGS OF SECURITY OPERATIVES: POLICE ARREST 16, RECOVER ARMS, AMMUNITION, EXPLOSIVES.

PART 2: Watch Confessional statement made by the suspect pic.twitter.com/KctYVop9pR
— Nigeria Police Force (@PoliceNG) March 29, 2021