Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor has rejected a letter terminating his appointment as the legal counsel to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), insisting that he remains the separatist group’s solicitor and had voluntarily ceased acting as the personal lawyer to the imprisoned IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, since December 2023.

Ejiofor, in a statement issued on Tuesday, said reports suggesting that Kanu had sacked him from representing IPOB were based on a false narrative, maintaining that his professional relationship with the organisation remains valid and has been reaffirmed by its current leadership.

According to him, he formally disengaged from Kanu’s personal legal representation in December 2023, long before the IPOB leader’s conviction and life sentence, stressing that he has not acted for Kanu in any private capacity since then.

He explained that despite ending his personal legal services to Kanu, his law firm has continued to serve as solicitors to IPOB, representing the organisation in several criminal cases across the country.

Ejiofor disclosed that between December 2023 and 2025, his legal team secured the discharge and acquittal of more than 200 alleged IPOB members after full trials at the Federal High Court in Abuja, as well as High Courts in Ebonyi and Abia states.

He said the outcomes of the cases are matters of public record and can be independently verified.

“The records are matters of public knowledge and are readily verifiable,’’ he stated.

The senior lawyer further argued that Kanu never personally appointed him as IPOB’s lawyer, explaining that the IPOB leader’s involvement was limited to his engagement as Kanu’s private counsel, a role he said ended in December 2023.

“I have not represented Nnamdi Kanu in any capacity whatsoever, whether as his private counsel, family lawyer, or otherwise. Any attempt to suggest the contrary is, at best, a deliberate distortion of the facts and, at worst, a calculated narrative designed to serve ulterior and mischievous purposes,” he said.

Ejiofor also questioned the authenticity of the letter purportedly issued by Kanu from custody, citing provisions of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act governing communications originating from inmates.

According to him, any correspondence purportedly issued by a convicted inmate or detainee must bear the appropriate authentication of the officer in charge of the correctional facility before it can be regarded as valid.

He warned lawyers and members of the public against relying on unauthenticated communications allegedly emanating from correctional centres without first verifying compliance with the relevant legal procedures.

“It is important to state that the Ni gerian Correctional Service Act is clear as to the manner in which any communication purportedly emanating from a convict or an inmate may be duly authenticated,” he said.

Ejiofor’s clarification comes a day after Kanu, in a letter dated July 22, 2026, announced the formal termination of Ejiofor’s services as his personal lawyer and as legal representative of IPOB.

In the letter, issued from the Sokoto Correctional Centre where Kanu is being held, the IPOB leader said Ejiofor’s earlier verbal dismissal was being confirmed in writing and declared that every authority previously granted to him to represent Kanu, his family or IPOB had been withdrawn with immediate effect.

Kanu accused the lawyer of continuing to hold himself out as counsel for IPOB despite no longer having his authorisation.

However, Ejiofor maintained that IPOB’s present leadership has reaffirmed his appointment as the organisation’s legal representative.

He also released a separate letter dated July 27, 2026, signed by IPOB’s Head of Directorate of State, Mazi Chikadibia Edoziem, reappointing him as the group’s General Legal Representative.

The letter stated that the reappointment supersedes his original appointment of May 2, 2017, following the restructuring of IPOB’s leadership, and affirmed that he remains the global movement’s legal counsel.

Kanu is currently serving a life sentence term at a Nigerian Correctional Service facility in Sokoto. In November 2025, he was convicted on terrorism-related charges stemming from his separatist agitation for an independent Biafra.