Pro-Trump Rally In Nigeria: Police Arrests 65 People At Demonstration Supporting US President

The Nigerian police reportedly said Sunday 65 people were arrested at a demonstration supporting President Donald Trump. It was organized by a group that advocates for an independent country that will be formed from regions of southeast Nigeria.

While massive demonstrations against Trump were held across the world on Friday, the day of his inauguration, the pro-independence activists from the Biafra region, who want Trump to support the creation of an independent Biafran state for the Igbo people, conducted a rally in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt.

"Some suspected members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) staged an unlawful protest in the Port Harcourt metropolis," Ahmed Magaji, deputy police chief of Rivers State — where the region is located — reportedly said, adding that the police had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd because the unauthorized march disrupted public order. The 65 people who were arrested were believed to be a part of IPOB and were seen carrying the movement's flags, he said.

But the Nigerian separatist group reportedly said the rally in support of Trump led to clashes with the police, in which about 20 people died and some others went missing. A spokesman for Rivers State police, Nnamdi Omoni, said 65 people were arrested but no one had died. Ugochukwu Chinweuba, a member of IPOB, reportedly said Saturday their lawyers were working on the release of those arrested, as well as trying to locate those still missing, whose number he put at about 200.

IPOB fought a civil war from 1967-70, in which about one million people died, to press for their demand to create an independent Biafran state. After the rally Friday, several pro-Biafra activists claimed on Twitter that police had attacked unarmed demonstrators, killing some in the process.

None of the separatists' claims could be verified independently.