MASSOB: Why the new offensive by police?

“How   can soldiers go to Ojukwu’s house in search of members of Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB)?” Umeh asked the audience who responded with screaming of “Injustice!’’, “Injustice!!” The angry Umeh, whose eyes turned red and misty with tears hollered, “The injustice against Ndigbo must be redressed. Ojukwu will not […]

“How   can soldiers go to Ojukwu’s house in search of members of Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB)?” Umeh asked the audience who responded with screaming of “Injustice!’’, “Injustice!!”

The angry Umeh, whose eyes turned red and misty with tears hollered, “The injustice against Ndigbo must be redressed. Ojukwu will not die in vain. We must continue the struggle from here.” And turning to the MASSOB Leader, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, (who had earlier in his own speech bemoaned the perceived injustice meted out to the Igbo people of the southeast zone of Nigeria), Umeh said, “I will go with you to the Enugu State police Command to see the Commissioner of Police and find out why MASSOB members were arrested.” The police in Enugu in collaboration with soldiers had earlier in the day arrested over 200 MASSOB members who were attending the award giving ceremony at Hotel Presidential, Enugu. No reason was given for the arrest as at the time of writing this report.

“I called the CP before the event today informing him that Ojukwu is being given an award and that nobody should be arrested. So we the Igbo people cannot give an award without getting permission?,” Umeh said as he sobbed.

Umeh blamed the present lot of the Igbo people on the five south east governors who failed to defend the cause of the Igbo. “I blame the south east governors for failing to defend the Igbo interest because of the pittance they collect from the Federal Government,” the APGA Chairman fumed, while calling on all the Igbo youth organizations to remain steadfast in the struggle to free Ndigbo from marginalization.

He said it is regrettable that many Igbo people in leadership positions have lost their identities in their selfish quest of winning government contracts in Abuja – all to the detriment of the generality of the Igbo.

“The marginalization of the Igbo started with only five states and few local government areas   created in the south east zone by the military governments. We continue to clamour for the creation of one more state but with the present constitution, it will be unrealistic. The only way we can get additional state is for President Goodluck Jonathan to pass a bill to the National Assembly for an additional state to be created in the south east,” he said. He added, “One more state and 40 local government areas should be created to bring the south east at par with the other zones in the country. The Nigerian federation must be balanced or the Igbo people should resort to a revolution.”

According to Umeh, APGA is determined to work with MASSOB in the fight against injustice meted to the Igbo, just as he added that the party will take over the entire south east in the next elections. “Ojukwu is a spirit and after sitting on his bedside in the hospital, you are moved to do a battle,” Omeh remarked.

Earlier, the MASSOB leader, Uwazurike told the crowd that whatever he is doing in Nigeria is inspired by Ojukwu, who has guided him all through the years he has known the ex-Biafran leader. “Ojukwu has removed fears from me; we can no longer fear Nigerian army and I’m ready to go to jail,” he boasted.

He said point-blank that no Igboman or woman will be president of Nigeria so long as the Igbo people lack the relevant agenda that could make such ambition realizable.

“No Igbo man will become president in Nigeria because the Igbo have no agenda in 2015; Igbo are going nowhere because they have no agenda. The Hausa have agenda. The Yoruba have agenda and even the South South have agenda; that is why they have produced the current president but the Igbo have none, hence they are going nowhere,” declared the angry Uwazurike.

He further said, “Nobody has been given power free of charge. You must go for power. Igbos must redirect their focus. I heard that soldiers went to Ojukwu’s house in search of MASSOB members but they have not seen anything.”

Speaking specifically on Ojukwu, the MASSOB leader said, “Ojukwu visited me in Owerri prison with Bianca when I was in detention. He made me to be alive today. He took me as his own son and I will continue to honour him.”

“Today when you go to Abuja , you see Yar’adua Barracks; roads named after army officers in the North but none is named after Ojukwu anywhere in the north and even in the entire southeast. Yet Ojukwu was the first graduate in Nigerian army; he was the first Adjunctant General of the Nigerian army,” he said. When it was time for Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu to address the gathering, she stood up and thanked the organizers of the event for the honour done to Ojukwu, who she said, would have loved to attend personally so as to receive the award himself. But she quickly said that what was more important to Ojukwu was the sacrifice which the award symbolized.

She told the audience that for a very long time, the Ikemba Nnewi had been looking to the south east governors to resettle the Biafran war veterans who are currently languishing at a place in Orji River, Enugu in order to better their welfare, noting that the ex-Biafran leader has always said that “resettlement of the veterans is a sacrifice any individual can make.”

According to Mrs. Ojukwu, “No befitting memorial has been put in place for all the young men who sacrificed their lives for Ndigbo to be alive today.” She added, “His dream is to create war memorial to say thanks to God to show that those young men lived and died to ensure that the Igbo nation existed.”

Saying that no nation can make progress without remembering those who laid down their lives, she told the gathering, “I am happy that Uwazurike informed me recently that he is planning a war memorial in honour of the Igbos who sacrificed their lives in the civil war.”

She recalled the incident of the murder by the Abuja police of six innocent Igbo traders otherwise known as the “Apo Six” in Abuja some years back, exclaiming that justice has not been done. “Ojukwu is desirous that those who murdered the Igbo traders are brought to justice; we must strive for peace in Nigeria,” she said. Adding, “The peace we enjoy now is peace of the graveyard because justice has not been done after the civil war.”

In his 8-page public lecture which formed part of activities scheduled for the ceremony, former Presidential Candidate of the National Transformation Party (NTP), Mr. John Dara, who flew in from Kwara State, observed that the Igbo and the northern minorities of the Middle Belt were the most “generous in their support for President Jonathan in the April polls,” noting that both the Igbo and  the Middle Belt people jointly and collectively have a responsibility to protect the mandate they gave to Jonathan. “We must challenge and support him to perform well and protect him from detractors and distractions,” Dara said.

Dara said for the sake of Nigeria, Jonathan must succeed, stressing that the nation cannot afford to waste more years. “If he fails, there will be a revolution. The problem with revolution is that its not very discerning or discriminatory in choosing its victims. The only viable alternative or determent to a bloody revolution in our nation is a successful fast-paced transformation of Nigeria,” he said.

He said the Igbo tend to use the horrific civil war experience as an excuse for their present problems, pointing out that although there was no gainsaying the reality, scars and unhealed wounds of their experience, the Igbo must be visionary, strategic, and competent enough to turn their adversity to strength. “We must not allow past tragedies to debar us from achieving present and future glories,” he stressed.

The speaker said the south east governors have great responsibilities to unite the people of the region, “make the Igbo race proud, confident, self-reliant, independent, and make the Igbo race win the race of the races especially in Africa”

Dara declared, “The governors need to  collaborate to produce a regional development  master plan featuring land use, infrastructure development, erosion control measures, integrated agricultural development, industrial estates, urban renewal, modern international shopping malls, compulsory education enrolment for every Igbo child…South east should revive coal mining and develop electricity power stations using coal.”

According to him, “Ndigbo are arguably the most resilient and enterprising people in Nigeria. The eastern states of Nigeria can easily become the most developed part of Nigeria. What the Igbo race urgently needs is high quality leadership imbued with vision, drive, discipline, confidence and compassion.”

At the end of the event on Wednesday August 24 in the evening, Umeh and Uwazurike along with other prominent Igbo people drove to the Enugu Police Command to find out from the Commissioner of Police why more than 250 members of MASSOB were arrested and detained and possibly ask for their release. As at the time of their arrest no concrete reasons were given for the mass arrest.

Sunday Trust learnt that the MASSOB members were travelling into Enugu to attend the 12th Anniversary of the Igbo Youth Movement, (IYM) which had   honoured the former Biafran Leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu with the title of “Ojukwu, Igbo Icon of All Times” at the Hotel Presidential, Enugu.

However, there was a sharp twist in the saga as the police decided to detain Uwazulike for reasons they did not also disclose. But our correspondent was informed that the arrested members wore uniforms with Biafran insignia, although none of them had any weapons.

Umeh and other Igbo leaders who went with Uwazulike, however, were allowed to go from the state police headquarters without the MASSOB leader.

Efforts to speak with the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu on the development did not bear any fruits; his mobile phone was switched off.