Terror kingpin ‘captured’ by Nigerian military declares in new video he’s alive and free

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The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said it would investigate a viral video clip which showed a notorious terror kingpin who was earlier declared “captured” by the Nigerian military.

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The terror kingpin, Ifeanyi Eze, is popularly known as Gentle De Yahoo. He hails from Imo State, South-east Nigeria.

The Director of Defence Media Operations, Michael Onoja, disclosed this during a press briefing in Abuja on Friday.

PREMIUM TIMES obtained a video clip of the press briefing.

‘Initial capture’

This newspaper earlier reported that the DHQ had announced that troops of Operation Udo Ka of the Nigerian Army “captured” Mr Eze during an operation in the south-eastern state between 8 October and 13 October 2025.

But on 28 January this year, a video clip which has now gone viral showed the terror kingpin announcing his return from an undisclosed location and threatening those he accused of betraying him.

In the clip seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Eze, who was also dancing to celebrate his survival, suggested that he had been in Akwa Ibom State, South-south Nigeria, where he had gone to receive medical treatment after he and his militants were poisoned.

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‘It could be AI, but we’ll investigate it’

At Friday’s press briefing, Mr Onoja, a major general, said the video clip might have been generated with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“What I can say is that in this current dispensation of AI, it is possible to create anything just to destabilise and cause panic within society,” he said.

“Notwithstanding, we will initiate necessary action with relevant security agencies to confirm if it is that he (Mr Eze) is back,” the director added.

He vowed that if the military authorities confirm the return of the terror kingpin, they would immediately take action to contain him and his group from causing more harm to people.

Background

Mr Eze, who claims to be a Biafran agitator, has been linked to some deadly attacks in the Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo State, including the murder of three of his fighters in the area.

The terror kingpin is a commander of the Biafra Liberation Army in Okigwe, which was established by Simon Ekpa, another controversial Biafra agitator and leader of a faction of IPOB called Autopilot.

IPOB is a group leading agitation for an independent state of Biafra, which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south Nigeria.

Mr Ekpa was recently jailed for terrorism in Finland, a North European country.

Meanwhile, PREMIUM TIMES reported in September that Mr Eze and his boys were feared killed when Nigerian troops raided their hideout in Aku-Ihube, a community in Okigwe Local Government Area.

Military sources had told this newspaper at the time that it was unclear if Mr Eze was among those killed during the operation.

Like other states in Nigeria’s South-east, security has deteriorated in Imo State with frequent attacks by armed persons in recent times.

READ ALSO: Nigerian military confirms ‘capture’ of terror kingpin in Imo

Attacks by gunmen who claim to be agitating for Biafra and other criminals in the South-east have combined to worsen insecurity in the region.

The Nigerian government has repeatedly accused IPOB of being responsible for the deadly attacks in the region.

But the IPOB faction led by Nnamdi Kanu has consistently denied its involvement in the attacks.

Meanwhile, like Mr Ekpa, Mr Kanu was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism in November 2025.