epa12466690 Police operate in central Abuja, Nigeria,20 October 2025. Police prevented a march for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, a British political activist and founder and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Kanu has been in custody since June 2021. Kanu was declared fit by a medical panel to continue facing his ongoing terrorism trial for his secessionist activities and calling for a sovereign Biafra carved out of Nigeria. EPA/EMMANUEL ADEGBOYE 
Kanu, who holds British citizenship, leads the banned Indigenous People of Biafra Movement (IPOB) that advocates for the secession of southeastern Nigeria, where the majority belong to the Igbo ethnic group.
In central Abuja, armed police patrolled with water cannon and armoured trucks, and fired volleys of teargas where protesters tried to gather. In other parts of the city, police were supported by armed soldiers in a show of force.
Kanu's supporters say his detention since 2021 is politically motivated and want him released and the seven counts of terrorism quashed. Kanu has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry life sentences.
More than a million people perished in a three-year civil war that began in 1967, the year Kanu was born, when the southeast region attempted to secede as the Republic of Biafra.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh, writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by Timothy Heritage)