Nnamdi Kanu founded the Indigenous People Of Biafra (Ipob) in 2014.
The movement wants a group of states in south-east Nigeria, made up mainly of people from the Igbo ethnic group, to break away and form the independent nation of Biafra.
The plan is not new. In 1967 Igbo leaders declared a Biafran state, but after a brutal civil war, which led to the deaths of up to a million people, the secessionist rebellion was defeated.
But the idea of separatism has bubbled away since then and Mr Kanu is the latest in a line of Biafran activists taking up the cause.
He was a relatively obscure figure until 2009 when he started Radio Biafra, a station that called for an independent state for the Igbo people and broadcast to Nigeria from London.
Though he grew up in Nigeria’s south-east and went to the University of Nsukka, Mr Kanu moved to the UK before graduating.
Soon after setting up Ipob, he spoke to gatherings of the large Igbo diaspora, calling for Biafran independence. In some of his comments, he urged Biafrans to take up arms against the Nigerian state.
“We need guns and we need bullets,” he said in one such address.
And that is what brought him to the attention of Nigeria’s security service
First republic of Biafra was declared by Nigerian military officer Odumegwu-Ojukwu in 1967
He led his mainly ethnic Igbo forces into a deadly three-year civil war that ended in 1970
More than one million people lost their lives, mostly because of hunger
Decades after Biafra uprising was quelled by the military, secessionist groups have attracted the support of many young people
They feel Nigeria’s central government is not investing in the region
But the government says their complaints are not particular to the south-east
Since his arrest, groups of Ipob supporters have gathered in protest around Nigeria and the movement has gained momentum.
They believe that the British vote to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s election in the US are evidence of growing international support for the “right to self-determination” which they espouse.
Some have said they are now seeking “Biafrexit”.
Organised pro-Biafran protests have almost always been broken up by police, with Ipob saying their followers were injured or even killed, something the authorities vehemently deny.
An Amnesty International report also claimed that at least 150 people were killed by Nigerian security forces in the course of pro-Biafra protests between August 2015 and August 2016.
The violence has led to increased publicity and Cheta Nwanze, a political analyst who has done extensive research on the pro-Biafra movement, says Mr Kanu’s “arrest was a mistake because it played into his hands”.
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