Posted by By Chidi Nkwopara on
OWERRI - THE Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) says it fully endorses the current attempt by Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State to flush thugs and miscreants.....
OWERRI - THE Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) says it fully endorses the current attempt by Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State to flush thugs and miscreants out of the markets and parks, but the group says the crusade should not be an excuse to persecute innocent citizens who also happen to be members of the organization.
MASSOB's Director of Organisation, Engr. Nnamdi Ohiagu, who stated this while addressing the press in Owerri, also lamented that killing of innocent citizens has reached an alarming proportion.
'Since December 22, 2005, hundreds of their members have been indiscriminately arrested, detained, tortured and secretly killed at various police and army detention camps. The killings have continued till date and has sadly graduated to a full military action", Ohiagu said.
According to the Director, MASSOB has lost hundreds of its members, while several others are carrying varying degrees of wound, adding that thousands remain unaccounted for, as the combined personnel of the police and army continue to raid their members' residences.
'It has become imperative that we should react by calling the attention of the press, the international community, human rights organisations, world religious bodies and heads of governments to our plight in this renewed joint military and police invasion and brutality on innocent civilians of Eastern Nigeria, which we consider as acts of genocide", the Director said.
While saying that they are 'looking for a non-violent answer to the present brutality of our people in Anambra State", the group however warned that their silence should not be seen as weakness 'but rather the most civilized way of handling a ruthless tyrant".
Continuing, Ohiagu emphatically stated that they have roundly rejected violence because it is an unjust means to fight a just cause.
'We appeal to our members in Onitsha in particular and Anambra State in general not to retaliate, no matter the extent of provocation, in the interest of peace.
We are also calling on the Federal Government to repair all destroyed buildings in Anambra State, as well as pay the medical bills of all those wounded during the joint police/military operations.
The body also urged government to order immediate halting of the current house-to-house search, arrest and killing of MASSOB members, release all MASSOB detainees arrested in Anambra State and pay for the burial rites of all those slain in the mayhem.