..2 MASSOB members killed, 2 policemen injured in Onitsha..FG’s persecution strengthening us – MASSOB, IPOB
Security
operatives comprising soldiers and policemen have renewed their raid
and search for pro-Biafra agitators in the South East geopolitical
zone.
The
new offensive by the military and police against members of the
Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra
(MASSOB) and the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) is linked to
President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent declaration in Katsina that he would
not allow any part of the country to secede.
The
AUTHORITY learnt that men of the Nigeria Police and soldiers, at the
weekend launched a massive search for members of IPOB and MASSOB in
Onitsha and its environs.
Residents
who had encounters with the military and the police personnel claimed
that crack teams of the two security agencies combed Onitsha and its
environs in search of where the Biafra groups were holding their
meetings.
The
security agents allegedly stormed some public schools, uncompleted
buildings, town halls and warehouses in Onitsha and other places such as
Nkpor, Nkwerezunaka, Obosi, Okpoko, and Oba in search of the
pro-Biafra agitators.
Other areas visited by the security agents were hotels, pubs and churches suspected to be in support of MASSOB and IPOB.
A
secondary school principal in Onitsha told The AUTHORITY that his
students reported to him that some armed security agents in three Hilux
vans stormed the school’s premises and interrogated some residents in
the area on the whereabouts of MASSOB and IPOB members.
A
military source said he was not ready to speak on the strategies of
security operatives but urged the Biafra agitators “to see the
handwriting on the wall that the unity of the Nigerian entity is a
no-go area as President Buhari declared last week during his visit to
his home-state of Katsina.”
The
AUTHORITY, however gathered, that the manhunt for the pro-Biafra groups
may not be unconnected with the report on the planned 30th year
anniversary celebration of Biafra later this month.
In
a reaction to the fresh crackdown on IPOB members, the group’s Director
of Media and Publicity, Emma Powerful said that it is wrong for
security agents to go after people in their homeland when they have not
committed any offence.
Powerful
said that the security agents are wasting their time because,
according to him, “Onitsha and its environs belong to Biafra and its
people have the right to gather to discuss issues that border on their
plight under the freedom of association provision in the Nigerian
Constitution.”
He
said that it is unfortunate that Nigerian security forces are targeting
unarmed people of Biafra while the Niger Delta militants and Fulani
herdsmen are bombing oil facilities and killing innocent Nigerians in
their homes and farms with AK-47 rifles and other dangerous weapons
under the watch of police and soldiers.
Similarly,
the leader of MASSOB, Comrade Uchenna Madu said the clampdown is a
sign of “jitter, frustration and loss of hope so evident in the
desperate bid to stop Biafra because of the renewed agitation for the
restoration of the Republic.”
He
added that patrolling the streets of major cities of Biafraland with
armed police/military personnel shows lack of intelligence on the part
of the Nigerian government.
Madu
said that the upcoming Biafra anniversary celebration on May 30, 2016
will hold, irrespective of the Federal Government’s threat and advised
other pro-Biafra groups to maintain their non-violence principle
during the period.
There
was however, confusion in Onitsha on Sunday, when two MASSOB members
were killed and two policemen injured with a shop razed during clashes
between the police and the agitators.
The injured policemen were attached to Okpoko Police Division in Onitsha, Anambra State.
The
AUTHORITY learnt that trouble started for the MASSOB members when one
of them allegedly resisted arrest by the two policemen, following a
complaint of assault lodged by a woman against a MASSOB member.
He
was said to have called his members numbering about 20 on phone and on
arrival at Udeaja/Ibe Street, attacked the policemen who held on to the
suspect.
The
policemen, in self-defence, allegedly used the suspect as shield when
they were being beaten by the MASSOB members until a police team came to
their rescue.
At
the police station, the suspect allegedly complained of severe pains
he sustained when the policemen used him as a shield but died a few
minutes later.
Another MASSOB member allegedly died when a rival group beat him to coma along Edeh Road.
It
was gathered that trouble started for the deceased when a woman
complained to a MASSOB member that a rival member assaulted her and
immediately the member mobilised his colleagues who beat him to coma and
he died a few minutes after.
In
anger and show of solidarity with the deceased, some residents of
Okpoko mobilised and razed the shop owned by the woman while she fled
the scene.
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Okpoko, Mr. Olabanji Kayode, said investigation into the matter had started.
Meanwhile,
IPOB has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal
Government of helping its cause by deploying security operatives after
its members.
The group accused President Buhari of doing harm to the unity of Nigerians than other leaders before him.
IPOB,
in a statement signed by its spokespersons, Dr. Clifford Iroanya and
Mr. Emma Mmezu, said that without the actions of President Buhari, the
crescendo reached today on the revival of the Biafra struggle would not
have been possible.
It
said: “The APC-led government of Muhammadu Buhari has done more than
anybody in the history of Nigeria to divide and dismember the
British-created Nigeria. Buhari has significantly catalysed and
fast-forwarded the restoration of the nation of Biafra.”
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