Onitsha: Pro-Biafran protesters’ action, self-serving, says Ohanaeze

 The socio-cultural organisation of the Igbo, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has condemned Wednesday’s pro-Biafran agitators’ violent protest that led to the death of over nine persons including a soldier and two policemen.

The Igbo leaders described the group and their leader, Nnamdi Kanu’s action as “barbaric and self-serving.”

Meanwhile, the Anambra State Police Command has said that 137 of the pro-Biafran agitators that allegedly participated in the violent protest have been arrested.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Ali Okechukwu, told one of our correspondents on the telephone that those arrested would be prosecuted.

He said, “As of today (Thursday), we have arrested 137 persons, whose action led to the death of some people and destruction of property including a mosque and a nomadic school. They will be prosecuted after we have concluded our investigation.”

He added that calm had returned to Onitsha.

Speaking with one of our correspondents on the telephone on Thursday, the Chairman of Forum of Presidents of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the seven Igbo-speaking states, Dr. Chris Eluomunoh, condemned the action of the agitators.

Eluomunoh, who is the Anambra State President of Ohanaeze, said, “The action of these boys will lead them to death, self-destruction and black alley.

“We have appealed to these boys to calm down and allow Igbo elders and governors to handle this issue but they don’t seem to listen.

“I have a feeling that these boys have a mission other than what they project to the public; otherwise, what do they think they can achieve on their own that the governors and Igbo elders cannot handle better? Why is it that they don’t want to listen to any voice of reason, if their mission is not self-serving?

“We condemn what happened in Onitsha in its totality. And I don’t think law enforcement officers will just fold their arms and allow this situation to continue.”

The leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, has also exonerated his members from the Onitsha mayhem.

He said the Indigenous People of Biafra and the Uchenna Madu-led faction of MASSOB should be held responsible for the violence.

Uwazurike said Madu and his cohorts were being sponsored by politicians to drag MASSOB through the mud because his faction had been expelled for anti-MASSOB activities.

Speaking through his Personal Assistant, Comrade Emmanuel Omenka, he said, ”Uchenna was expelled from MASSOB in 2014 because of anti-MASSOB activities.

“When you don’t follow the organogram of MASSOB we expel you so they were expelled for not following the organogram.

“Uchenna and his cohorts are being sponsored by politicians to blackmail Uwazurike and MASSOB but we don’t blackmail, we remain non-violent in actions and words. These politicians who said that Biafra died in 1970 are cowards because Biafra still exists,” he said.

“The God we serve will still help us to actualise a Biafra State without shedding blood. Those who said MASSOB is now divided is false because we are one indivisible entity,” he added.

Meanwhile, business activities have returned in Onitsha and environs after a two-day protest for Kanu’s release.

Also, the youth wing of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Ohanaeze Youth Council, in a statement on Thursday in Umuahia, Abia State, warned that Nigeria could be on the verge of another civil war if the escalating protests were not urgently stopped.

The statement, which was signed by the National President of OYC, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, and the National Secretary, Nnabuike Okwu, respectively, condemned the violent protests by IPOB across the South-East.

He said, “The enemies of Ndigbo must have hijacked the peaceful protests in Onitsha to foment trouble and to create the wrong impression that IPOB and MASSOB are now violent organisations, and then give excuses to security agents to use maximum force to suppress the pro-Biafran agitators.

“That is why we want to repeat our appeal to the pro-Biafran agitators to please stop further protests in the interest of Ndigbo. They should not forget that the enemies of Ndigbo are looking for any slightest opportunity to turn the South-East to another theatre of war.”

He, however, appealed to the Federal Government to expedite action on the peace process towards releasing Kanu, arguing that his continued incarceration poses a serious threat to the peace of the country especially the South-East.

Isiguzoro said a political solution and not application of force, remained the only panacea to the festering pro-Biafran protests.

Meanwhile, the President-General, The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, on Thursday urged Muslims in the country, especially those in the South-East, not to retaliate the attack on Muslims and the burning of the Central Mosque of Onitsha on Wednesday by demonstrators.

Abubakar, who was represented by the Secretary General, NSCIA, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, during a media briefing in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, said though the reported attacks, which he said culminated in the loss of lives were distressful, Muslims should not retaliate.