The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has noted with disgust the malicious falsehood published by The Punch Newspapers on September 4, 2025, alleging that police and allied security forces dismantled an “ESN/IPOB camp” in Aguluezechukwu, Aguata LGA, Anambra State.
We categorically state that this report is fabricated propaganda. Punch Newspaper has, once again, reduced itself to a mouthpiece of the Nigerian government by parroting unverified claims designed to smear IPOB. No evidence has been presented, no independent investigation carried out, and no attempt made to verify from the community or from IPOB. Instead, Punch chose to peddle fiction as fact.
If the Nigerian Police or their partners in the media have any credible evidence, they should tender it in a competent court of law. Instead, Punch has chosen to insult the intelligence of Nigerians and the global community with this disgraceful hatchet job.
Punch claims to be a national newspaper but has abandoned investigative journalism. Its reporters sit in Lagos and Abuja, recycling government handouts, rather than visiting Anambra or Imo to confirm the truth. IPOB is prepared to sponsor investigative teams from Punch and other outlets to travel to the East and investigate on the ground—if indeed they are interested in journalism and not propaganda.
We state without equivocation that the said publication is a malicious falsehood. If the Nigerian Police or their media collaborators have any credible evidence of such a “camp,” they should present it in a court of law instead of insulting public intelligence with fiction.
This lazy journalism and reckless peddling of propaganda underscores the moral bankruptcy of some Nigerian media houses. They have abandoned the sacred duty of investigative reporting and instead act as mouthpieces for a regime bent on ethnic demonization. IPOB is prepared to sponsor investigative teams from Punch, Daily Trust, The Nation, and Premium Times to travel to the East and see the truth for themselves, instead of regurgitating propaganda from security agencies.
The shameful report by Punch Newspapers is not journalism. It is ethnic propaganda, it is dangerous, and it exposes Punch as complicit in the wider agenda of demonizing Biafra and IPOB. IPOB will henceforth call out, by name, every rogue outlet and journalist that engages in this deliberate misinformation campaign.
Let it be known: IPOB remains whiter than white. No amount of Punch Newspaper’s propaganda can taint our cause, which is rooted in justice, self-determination and justice.
COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL SPOKESPERSON/MEDIA AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.
