Nigeria: Police found severed head of missing lawmaker of Anambra state

Nigerian Police have found the severed head of a state legislator who got missing last week in the southeastern state of Anambra, where the government blames separatists for carrying out a series of kidnappings and killings.

Nigerian Police have found the severed head of a state legislator who got missing last week in the southeastern state of Anambra, where the government blames separatists for carrying out a series of kidnappings and killings.

The banned group of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been conducting calls for the secession of the area, the hometown of the Igbo ethnic group, from the rest of the country of Nigeria.

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The group’s leader Nnamdi Kanu is being charged with treason and terrorism by the federal government.

A lawmaker in the Anambra state assembly, Okechukwu Okoye, and his assistant went missing on 15 May. His head was found a week later in a motor park in the area of Nnewi south local government, said the state police spokesperson Tochukwu Ikenga.

Ikenga said on Sunday, 22 May, the legislator was killed, and his head was discovered along Nnobi road. There is no suspect in custody yet.

The assistant is also predicted to have been murdered, but his body has not been found.

Charles Soludo, Governor of Anambra state, has put up a reward of $24 000 for information on the murderers.

IPOB had urged people in the southeast region to isolate themselves at home on Mondays, which will be a form of civil disobedience to show solidarity with the state of Kanu, since last year (June) when he was deported from Kenya to be tried in Abuja.

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The move has impacted small businesses and many other economic activities, and some residents also claim they have been beaten up for not going with the orders.

The group has also been charged with masterminding kidnappings as well as killing in different areas.

Amnesty International stated during last August that Nigerian security forces had killed over 115 people in the southeast during the first eight months of 2021.

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