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No fewer than six persons, including a policeman, were feared dead Wednesday, when members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and men of the Nigeria police clashed in Onitsha, Anambra State, during a well coordinated protest.
No fewer than six persons, including a policeman, were feared dead Wednesday, when members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and men of the Nigeria police clashed in Onitsha, Anambra State, during a well coordinated protest.
The protest was also organised in Lagos, Imo, Bayelsa, Abia and Ebonyi states to kick against alleged harassment and arrest of MASSOB leaders and members by security operatives across the country.
Besides the dead, over 34 persons were also injured in the bloody clash in Onitsha even as the police in Asaba, Delta State, arrested 10 MASSOB members.
However, while MASSOB leaders claimed that about five of their members were killed by the police in Anambra, the State Police Commissioner, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, described the claim as false, stating that a policeman was rather killed by the MASSOB men.
Ogbaudu said that MASSOB men attacked and shot his men and killed one, while three others are lying critically ill in the hospital.
Trouble began in Onitsha when MASSOB members, in a convoy of about 40 buses and hundreds of motorcycles and holding Biafran flags and brandishing Biafran currency, started driving round the commercial city. They also sang Biafran songs of solidarity. As a result of the protest, traders at the Onitsha main market hurriedly closed their shops.
According to the duo of Daily Sun's reporters, GEOFFREY ANYANWU in Akwa and NWABUEZE OKONKWO in Onitsha, in the course of this the demonstrators encountered the police.
MASSOB's Area Administrator for Idemili North, Chief John Edeson, alleged that a police team shot and killed five of their members and left many others injured at the Uga junction, adding that bodies of the slain members were removed by the police.
Edeson, who spoke alongside MASSOB's National Director of Mobilization, Sam Ife and the Area Coordinator of Organization for Ilodibe Province, Innocent Okoroji, explained that their protest was predicated on the recent attacks on Chief Ralph Uwazurike, their leader, by the police and SSS, looting and destruction of their Freedom Headquarters at Okigwe and the demand of N5 million bribe from Uwazurike by the Imo State Director of SSS, Mr. Alex Amaechina.
They therefore appealed to the United Nations (UN) and other world leaders to recognize Biafra as a nation as, according to them, they have lost interest in the Nigerian nation.
Contacted on telephone, both the Onitsha Police Area Commander, Mr. Dennis Anyagafu, (Assistant Commissioner of Police) and the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Kolapo Shofoluwe (ASP), told Daily Sun that they were in a meeting and could not comment on the matter.
From Asaba, Delta State, BUCHY ENYINNAYA reports that no fewer than 200 members of MASSOB stormed the state capital to stage protest along the popular Nnebisi way.
It was gathered that the protest was a spill over from the neighbouring Onitsha, where the group had held up traffic on some major roads. When some anti-riot policemen from the Delta State Police Command arrived the Nnebisi Road scene in several pick-up vans to round up the protesters, they voluntarily surrendered themselves to arrest even to the amazement of the police and onlookers.
The state's Police Public Relations Office (PPRO), Miss Okuwobi Olabisi, confirmed the arrest of 10 MASSOB members, including a female. She said that those arrested include Emeka Nkwor, Chukwu Ngene, William Okoro, Emeka Orlando, Dominic Ideh and Ogbude Stephen.
From Abuja, the federal capital territory, GODWIN TSA reports that a group of ‘Concerned Biafrans' marched the streets of the nation's capital in protest of the recent raid of MASSOB headquarters in Imo State by a combined team of the States Security
Services (SSS) and armed soldiers.
The group, which vowed to resist any attempt by the Federal Government to scuttle its project, called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the Imo State Director of the SSS, Mr. Alex Amaechina, for allegedly demanding a N5 million bribe from MASSOB leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike.
Leader of the group, Mr. Jonathan Unegbu, called on the Federal Government to withdraw the armed soldiers deployed to the MASSOB headquarter, explaining that the organisation was not violent in nature.
Similar rally also took place in other major towns in Imo State such as Orlu, Anara and Okigwe. The protestors, who went around the major streets of the state capital, were carrying placards with inscriptions 'Bye-Bye to Nigeria; Stop terrorizing Chief Uwazuruike; We are not at war, why military intervention?" We cannot be slaves in our father's land; Obasanjo and his security agents should leave us alone."
Addressing newsmen, MASSOB director of organization, Mr. Nnamdi Ohiagu, stated that they were protesting against the continued raids on Uwazuruike by security operatives.
From Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, FEMI FOLARAMI reports that groups of Igbo youths took to the street in some parts of Yenagoa Wednesday, protesting what they called 'continuous harassment, arrest, detention and killing of innocent and harmless Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB by the federal government of Nigeria."
The coordinator of MASSOB in the state, Comrade Ogbonna Bid Unogu, while addressing a press conference after the protests, said the continued raid on MASSOB facilities by agents of the Federal Government had failed to attract response from MASSOB, adding that rather the 'Federal Government appears to be losing the battle to stop the actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra."
From Lagos, VICTOR OGBONNAYA reports that hundreds of MASSOB members and the Eastern Youth Assembly called on the Federal Government to probe an alleged N5 million naira demand by the Imo State Director of the State Security Services.
Addressing a news conference in Lagos, shortly after a mass demonstration at Oshodi, a Lagos suburb, Chief Benjamin Onaegbu alias 'Papa," a chieftain of MASSOB, said that the probe had become imperative because of the need to clarify certain claims by the SSS state director in Imo State.
The 82-year-old woman, who gave her name as Marthina Usulor, explained that all through her life, she had never offered hardship as is the situation now, stating, 'I want to join these people, it's just that I don't have the strength to shout like them."
Ebonyi State coordinator of MASSOB, Dr. Linu Obiraja Ogazi lamented the 'various unlawful excesses, in word and action towards MASSOB and its noble activities."
From, Aba in Abia State, MATHHIAS NWOSU reports that the police in the state have described as baseless and a false alarm the claimed that MASSOB overran Aba killing many people.
Briefing journalists at the Aba Area Police Command, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. A.T. Gaya, after visiting Aba in the company of top security officers in the state, said the rumours were mischievous. He said, 'about 12 noon today I received a phone call that Aba had been overrun by MASSOB. You can see that this is completely false as Aba is very quiet"