Delta Police Deny Clampdown on Pro-Biafra Activists

Delta State Police Command has denied arresting and detaining any member of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), as public demonstration by members of the group against the continued detention of one of their leaders intensified in some parts of the country at the weekend.

Asaba, the Delta State capital, and a couple of neighbouring towns as well as some places in Anambra and Bayelsa states, at the weekend, witnessed protests by members of the pro-Biafra group.

The widely publicised protest, which is apparently intended to attract public sympathy over the arrest and detention of a leader of IPOB and the director of Radio Biafra, Mr Nnamdi Kanu, led to clashes between the police and the protesters in Asaba as well as Umunede and Agbor last Friday.

This followed attempts by the pro-Biafra activists to paralyse commercial and social activities especially in Asaba by warning residents to stay away from the main market in the metropolis, the Ogbogonogo Market, and to keep their children away from schools.

An unspecified number of persons were reportedly arrested by the police as they allegedly attempted to barricade the ever-busy Benin-Asaba-Onitsha Road around the Summit Junction portion of the road, forcing police to use teargas in dispersing them.

Nonetheless, following earlier threats from members of the IPOB group, some Asaba residents and traders stayed away from Ogbogonogo Market on Friday, making the market relatively scanty.