By Emmanuel Nduka
Three Israeli filmmakers have been arrested by Nigerian authorities over alleged ties with separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Times of Israel reported.
Confirming the arrest of its citizens, Israeli Foreign Ministry said the suspects are: Rudy Rochman, Noam Leibman and French-Israeli journalist E. David Benaym. They are being interrogated on suspicion that they had come into contact with IPOB members.
However, family members of one of the Israelis told the Israeli daily that the allegations were entirely unfounded and that separatist social media accounts took advantage of the Israelis’ trip to claim that the three were supporting Biafran separatist groups.
The Israelis were in Nigeria to film “We Were Never Lost,” a documentary exploring Jewish communities in African countries such as Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda, and Nigeria. They arrived in Nigeria Tuesday, July 6, a day after they departed Ben Gurion Airport in Isreal.
Eyewitnesses said the Israelis were arrested in Ogidi village, Anambra State, Southeast, Nigeria by security operatives and were later taken to Abuja.
Their arrest occurred about two weeks after Nigerian authorities announced the rearrest of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu who jumped bail in 2017 after his first arrest in 2015.
Kanu is facing treasonable charges and many others which are connected to his call for the secession south-eastern region of Nigeria.
