Online Special • Created August 1, 2017 15:27

Group declares Biafra independent, names Soludo, Utomi, Oteh, Maku in “cabinet”

A previously little known pro-Biafran group, the Biafra Zionist Federation, has declared the secession of what it called the “Republic of Biafra”. It said with effect from August 1, Biafra becomes independent of Nigeria. The group’s leader Benjamin Onwuka declared himself interim president at a press briefing in Enugu on Monday, but no deputy is […]

Group declares Biafra independent, names Soludo, Utomi, Oteh, Maku in “cabinet”

A previously little known pro-Biafran group, the Biafra Zionist Federation, has declared the secession of what it called the “Republic of Biafra”.

It said with effect from August 1, Biafra becomes independent of Nigeria.

The group’s leader Benjamin Onwuka declared himself interim president at a press briefing in Enugu on Monday, but no deputy is named.

Onwuka has previously been detained and charged with treason after he led some BZF and attempted to invade the studios of Enugu’s state broadcaster to announce a secession bid in June 2014.

Onwuka left journalists bewildered with the declaration, then he laughed and began reeling out names.

“This is not a laughing matter,” he retorted.

  • ·        Economist Pat Utomi, foreign minister
  • ·        Former CBN governor Chukwuma Soludo, now head of a Biafran central bank
  • ·        former head of Securities and Exchange Commission Arunma Oteh, finance minister
  • ·        Nnia Nwodo, president-general of the Igbo grouping Ohanaeze Ndigbo, is named as Biafra’s ambassador to the US
  • ·        former information minister Jerry Gana is named transport minister
  • ·        former information minister Labaran Maku is aviation minister
  • ·        Amarachi Ubani is information minister
  • ·        former power minister Barth Nnaji is “Biafra’s” energy minister
  • ·        Amarachi Ubani, is information minister
  • ·        Mary Okafor, heads trade and industry ministry
  • ·        Benny Lar, from Plateau State, is secretary to the Government of the Republic of Biafra;
  • ·        Gabriel Oluwole Osagie is education minister
  • ·        Philip Effiong is health minister

He said the names were compiled on grounds that the appointees are indigenes to territories considered Biafran.

There is no word on whether the appointees have been consulted before been named in the cabinet.

Onwuka insisted the “Biafran” government is backed by the US as a matter of foreign policy endorsed by former President Barack Obama.

Tags