"The struggle continues - it is not negotiable," Ngozi Uwazuruike told the BBC about the desire for independence for the south-eastern Igbo people.

Mr Uwazuruike's treason trial is due to resume on Monday in Abuja.

Mrs Uwazuruike, however, said the children had been affected by not seeing their father for two years.

"Our four children are out of school now and they miss their father," she told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

Mr Uwazuruike was arrested in October 2005 and has been in detention since then.

"The little one is emotionally sick now," Mrs Uwazuruike said.

"He needs to see his father. But I don't know how I could possibly take that little boy to prison to see his father."

The Movement for Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) says 37 years after the Biafran civil war ended, the Igbo people are still "marginalised" in Nigeria.

"We are not wanted," Mrs Uwazuruike said.

Recently, former Biafran leader, Emeka Ojukwu said the Igbo have more reason today to seek independence from Nigeria.

Mr Ojukwu's declaration of independence on 30 May 1967 led to a three-year civil war, in which more than 1m people died, mostly from hunger.

Mr Uwazuruike, a lawyer, abandoned his law practice to take up the Biafran campaign.