Nigerian separatist leader on the run after gun battle

ABUJA: A Nigerian separatist activist known for stoking ethnic tensions was on the run after a police raid on his home, authorities said.

Law enforcement raided the home of Sunday Igboho -- who advocates for an independent nation for the Yoruba ethnic group in the southwest of the country -- in the early hours of Thursday, a statement from the Department of State Services (DSS) said.

"The gun duel which lasted for an hour offered Igboho the chance to escape," it said, reporting that two of Igboho's men were "gunned down" during the exchange of fire.

In the house, security forces found multiple shotguns, Kalashnikov automatic rifles, Voodoo charm jackets and cutlasses, as well as other weapons and ammunition. They arrested 12 men and a woman.

"This, the arrests and seizures are, no doubt, a confirmation of a grand plan by Igboho and his cohorts to wage a violent insurrection against the Nigerian State," police said.

"He may hide as long as he wants... But this will be the end of his shenanigans."

The raid comes less than a week after the arrest of prominent pro-Biafran independence leader Nnamdi Kanu.

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group, which supports the secession of the south-east of Nigeria, Kanu was arrested abroad after four years on the run and brought to Nigeria, where he will go on trial for "terrorism" this month.

Biafra -- a deprived region almost entirely populated by the Igbo people -- was the site of a bloody civil war between 1967 and 1970.

A nation of 210 million and over 200 ethnic groups, Nigeria is regularly rocked by ethnic tensions.

The three largest groups are the Hausa-Fulani in the north, the Igbo in the south-east and the Yoruba in the southwest.