IPOB BLASTS GOWON OVER CIVIL WAR COMMENTS, ACCUSES HIM OF GENOCIDE DENIAL AND HISTORICAL DISTORTION

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has issued a scathing response to recent comments by former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (retd.), who claimed the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) was not fueled by ethnic hatred but was instead a necessary measure to preserve national unity. Gowon made the remarks during a church convention in Abuja, sparking outrage among Biafran activists and supporters of secessionist narratives.
In a strongly worded statement, IPOB spokesperson Emma Powerful described Gowon’s remarks as a “desperate, deceptive, and shameless attempt to whitewash history,” accusing him of distorting facts about what the group has repeatedly labeled as the “Biafran genocide.” IPOB condemned what it sees as an ongoing effort by the Nigerian elite to sanitize the military’s role in the war and erase the atrocities committed against the Igbo people and other ethnic nationalities of the former Eastern Region.
According to IPOB, more than five million Biafrans were killed during the conflict, many of them through what the group alleges was a deliberate policy of starvation, military siege, and civilian bombings. Emma Powerful likened Gowon’s actions to those of historical dictators, stating that “his legacy is rivaled only by Hitler in brutality and disregard for human life.”
The statement also revisited the failed 1967 Aburi Accord between the Nigerian federal government and Biafran leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, accusing Gowon of bad faith negotiations and alleging that he deliberately sabotaged a peaceful resolution brokered in Ghana.
IPOB reiterated its unyielding commitment to Biafran self-determination and warned against “revisionist narratives” it says are intended to delegitimize their cause. The group urged all Biafrans both at home and in the diaspora to reject what it called “historical lies” and continue advocating for a referendum and the right to self-rule.