From the worsening, deadly attacks in Nigeria’s South-east to the life imprisonment of Nnamdi Kanu and his fellow pro-Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa, the year 2025 was characterised by a number of events in the region.
PREMIUM TIMES is highlighting some of the defining events in the region in 2025:
|
|
Deadly attacks
The deadly attacks in the South-east in previous years did not cease in 2025.
In 2025, like in other years, gunmen said to be part of the Biafra agitation in the region, abducted, killed and beheaded several persons, mainly government officials and security operatives in the region, during numerous attacks within the year.
|
|
|---|
Security facilities in the five South-east states – Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo and Abia –suffered recurring attacks by gunmen in 2025.
The outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been linked to some deadly attacks in the South-east and some parts of the South-south of Nigeria.
IPOB has, however, repeatedly denied any involvement in the attacks. The separatist group is leading agitation for an independent state of Biafra, which it wants carved out from the two regions.
Some of the prominent incidents include the killing of at least 12 people in July by gunmen who invaded three communities in Imo State and the massacre of 13 others in Anambra State by gunmen who invaded Ogboji community in Orumba South Local Government Area of the state in late June.
Beyond killings, kidnappings intensified in 2025 in the South-east, with several people abducted and others killed by their abductors across the region.
Catholic priests, politicians, university lecturers and even students have been targeted in such attacks in the region in 2025.
Apart from attacks and killings by suspected pro-Biafra gunmen, armed men, believed to be herders, killed and abducted several people across the South-east in 2025.
In February, for instance, at least 10 people were killed by suspected herders who invaded an Ebonyi community. Also in May, one person was shot dead while 10 people were kidnapped in separate attacks by suspected herders in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Nigerian Catholic priest denounces Christianity, joins African religion
The year 2025 began in the South-east with a story in January about Echezona Obiagbaosogu, a Catholic priest, who denounced Christianity and joined the African Traditional Religion.
Mr Obiagbaosogu has served as a Catholic priest for 17 years in Anambra State before leaving the Catholic Church.
The former cleric now teaches African Traditional Religion at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, in Anambra State.
He hails from the Ihiala Local Government Area of the state, which has a high population of Catholic Christians.
Ekweremadu’s wife released from UK prison
Beatrice Ekweremadu, the wife of a former deputy Senate President of Nigeria, Ike Ekweremadu, was released from a UK prison in January 2025.
Mr Ekweremadu, his wife, and a doctor were convicted of organ trafficking by a UK court in March 2023.
After a six-week trial at the Old Bailey, they were found guilty of facilitating the travel of a young man to Britain with a view to his exploitation.
While Mr Ekweremadu was later sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison, his wife received a four-year and six-month jail term.
Murder of Anambra lawmaker
Justice Azuka, a member of the Anambra House of Assembly, was found dead in the state in February 2025.
Mr Azuka represented Onitsha North Constituency I. Gunmen abducted him on 24 December 2024 along Ugwunapampa Road in Onitsha North Local Government Area of Anambra.
The people of Onitsha Community, where Mr Azuka hailed from, later criticised the Governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo, over the rising insecurity in the state and the murder of the lawmaker.
Self-acclaimed prophet enmeshed in N500 million ‘fake miracle’ scandal
In March 2025, a self-proclaimed prophet, Ebuka Obi, was embroiled in a fake miracle scandal after a woman, Loveth Aluu, who had earlier given a testimony in the ministry claiming to have bought a N500 million mansion, was spotted selling bottled water and soft drinks in a small shop in Enugu State.
Mr Obi is the founder of Zion Prayer Movement Outreach, a Christian ministry headquartered in Lagos State.
During his Night of Open Heaven, a daily online prayer programme, Mr Obi prophesied that a certain lady, known as “Loveth,” would soon receive God’s favour and celebrate.
The prophet claimed God revealed to him that he (God) had remembered Loveth.
Ms Aluu, in the testimony in a video clip, claimed that she witnessed a breakthrough after Mr Obi, whom she calls “daddy,” prophesied about her, prompting her business, which was initially on the brink of collapse, to witness “an unimaginable boom”.
But Mr Obi petitioned the police after Robo Consult, a construction and real estate firm that owns the mansion, denied Ms Aluu’s claims and subsequently arrested her for the “entirely false, fraudulent and misleading” testimony.
The self-acclaimed prophet claimed during a Sunday service that Ms Aluu was sponsored by an unnamed priest in the South-east to provide false testimony and blackmail his ministry.
On the strength of the petition, the police arrested and arraigned Ms Aluu before a magistrate court in Enugu State on a four-count charge of false pretence, defamation of character, conspiracy and felony.
Blind Nigerian university students suffer discrimination despite existing law
In March 2025, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation revealed that blind students continue to face discrimination from both staff and students across Nigerian universities, particularly at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) in Enugu State and Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) in Anambra State, both located in the South-east.
The investigation, published in March 2025, also revealed how the students struggle with unpaved walkways, inaccessible classrooms, and inadequate support from lecturers.
This is despite the fact that discrimination against persons with disabilities and the lack of accessibility aids violate Nigeria’s Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018.
About six months after the publication, UNN management inaugurated a committee to develop a “comprehensive disability policy” in the university.
The management acknowledged that although some of the university’s “older buildings were constructed before accessibility standards became common practice,” the university had begun efforts to correct the situation.
Arrest of native doctor who allegedly buried humans alive for rituals
There was an outrage in Enugu State in May 2025 when some vigilante operatives busted a native doctor who allegedly buried several people alive in a sewage pit for ritual.
The incident happened at Umumba Ndiagu, a community in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu.
The native doctor, Onyeka Obu, is popularly known as Ozo Ezeani as well as “E dey play, E dey show.”
He was arrested by personnel of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) at the Badagry-Seme Border Area of Lagos State while attempting to flee the country.
Days later, NIS authorities handed him over to the Lagos State Command of the Nigeria Police Force.
The native doctor was subsequently moved from Lagos to the Enugu State Command of the police, hours later, to face prosecution.
Mr Obu was arraigned before a magistrate court in Enugu State in August on seven counts of conspiracy, kidnapping and murder.
The native doctor was arraigned alongside two others — Sebastine Offor, the second defendant, and Ejike Odinwakpa, the third defendant.
The Chief Magistrate, O.S. Chukwuani, ordered that the defendants be remanded until 20 August.
Mr Chukwuani ordered the transfer of the case file to the Director of Public Prosecutions for legal advice and prosecution at the High Court.
The matter is currently before a high court in the state.
Simon Ekpa jailed for terrorism
In September, the Päijät-Häme District Court in Finland sentenced controversial Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa, to six years in prison after finding him guilty of terrorism-related charges.
The court ruled that Mr Ekpa had participated in a terrorist organisation and had publicly incited crimes for terrorist purposes.
The court held that Mr Ekpa had used his significant social media following to stoke tensions in the “Biafra region” between August 2021 and November 2024.
It further held that Mr Ekpa had supplied these groups with weapons, explosives, and ammunition through his network of contacts in the region, and he was also found to have encouraged his followers on his X handle to commit crimes in Nigeria.
Mr Ekpa was charged in mid-May with public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent and participation in a terrorist group.
Minister’s certificate forgery scandal
In October 2025, Nigerians were alarmed after a PREMIUM TIMES two-year-long painstaking investigation uncovered how a serving Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, forged his degree and NYSC certificates.
Findings of the investigation dominated national discourse for weeks, with many expressing outrage that Mr Nnaji escaped screening agencies that failed to detect his forgeries.
Following the investigation’s findings, the politician resigned his appointment, barely three days later.
Enugu governor dumps PDP for APC
A historic political development occurredrred in Enugu State in October 2025 when Governor Peter Mbah defected from the PDP to the APC along with all the commissioners and elected chairpersons of the state’s 17 local government areas.
The defection ended PDP’s over 24-year reign in the state and the South-east.
Although the governor initially suggested that his defection to the APC was to connect Enugu State to the central government, his switch to the ruling party followed intense face-off between South-east PDP and its national leadership of the party over a contest for its national secretary position.
Nnamdi Kanu’s life imprisonment
On 20 November 2025, the 10-year-long terrorism trial of Nnamdi Kanu came to an end. A Federal High Court, Abuja, convicted him of terrorism and then sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Mr Kanu, the IPOB leader, was moved from Abuja to a prison facility in Sokoto State hours after his conviction.
The IPOB leader had unsuccessfully sought to be transferred from the prison in Sokoto, North-west Nigeria to another facility close Abuja.
Some top Nigerian politicians, including Peter Obi, condemned the conviction.
Mr Kanu’s conviction and sentence came about two months after Mr Ekpa, another Biafra agitator, was convicted and sentenced to six years in imprisonment in Finland for terrorism in Nigeria’s south-east.
IPOB was founded by Mr Kanu in 2012.
Arrest, prosecution of Chris Ngige
On 10 December, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested a former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, over alleged N2.2 billion fraud.
Mr Ngige, who served as governor of Anambra State from 2003 to 2006, was arraigned by the EFCC before the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Gwarinpa, Abuja, two days later.
The former minister pleaded not guilty to the charges, but the trial judge ordered his remand in Kuje Correctional Centre pending the hearing and determination of his bail application.
He was granted bail on 18 December after a six-day detention. His trial was adjourned until 28 January 2026.
