Posted by By Okey Maduforo, Correspondent, Awka on
Despite warnings by the Anambra State Police Command to ruthlessly deal with those trading in Biafran notes in the state, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has commenced open sale of the Biafran currency in Onitsha, Anambra State capital.
Despite warnings by the Anambra State Police Command to ruthlessly deal with those trading in Biafran notes in the state, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has commenced open sale of the Biafran currency in Onitsha, Anambra State capital.
At the Onitsha Main Market, members of the public and traders were seen making bulk purchases of the currency for fear of being caught by surprise should the threat of secession by the group be real.
The MASSOB members, who where also making sales at Nkpor, New Parts and Tew Tyre markets and Ogidi Town, sold £10 for N2,700, £5 for N1,350, £1 pound for N270 and 1 shelling for N1.35.
According to the MASSOB Area II administrator in Onitsha, Samuel Edison, 'The traders have been advised to accept the pounds as a legal tender, and the quality and value of ponds is higher than that Nigerian Naira".
Edison further disclosed that the sale of the currency was aimed at assuring the Igbo of the South East and South South extraction that the Biafran independence was close.
He added that soon, the Naira would not be acceptable in the claimed Biafran territory.
He also described as threat, the fears in some quarters that government would arrest the peddlers of the Biafra currency, insisting that the government had no power to stop the 'Biafran conquest".
He continued: 'No amount of intimidation, harassment can stop us. We are out to take our destiny in our hands and ensure that our freedom is achieved.
'All those threats of arrest cannot make us change. We cannot be cowed or cajoled into submission. Tell the Nigerian government that our days are numbered (sic) and soon the Naira will no longer be a legal tender in our territory".
A cross section of the traders interview expressed mixed feelings over the sale of the Biafran currency, with some expressing confidence in the ability of MASSOB to achieve independence for the Igbo, while others felt the sale of the currency might land most of the traders in police net.