From Magnus Eze, Abuja
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South East, Chief Austin Edeze said Biafra can still be achieved through non-violence as opposed to the tension and crisis caused in the region by agitators of independent state of Biafra.
Edeze, in an interview with Daily Sun noted that there was nothing wrong in agitating for freedom, but, urged the Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), the Biafra Independent Movement (BIM) and other pro-Biafra groups to eschew violence and follow the path of dialogue including mobilising for referendum. The APC Board of Trustees (BoT) member reasoned that Ndigbo had fought war before and made enormous sacrifice in the Nigeria project; hence, would instead “seek self-determination through peaceful means instead of war.
“For you to declare yourself a sovereign state in an existing sovereign state amounts to treason. So, there are other ways of achieving this same interest of Biafra we are pursuing illegitimately. Illegitimate because declaring sovereignty in a country that is a sovereign nation, is not the best way to go about it.”
“Biafra is something that has to be discussed; we had done it by war and it didn’t work, we can also do it by dialogue…”
“It’s not necessary the way innocent persons are being killed in Aba, Owerri, Asaba, Onitsha and other places in the agitation for Biafra. Will Asaba, Aba, Onitsha and Owerri give us Biafra? It has to be dialogued; it has to be discussed. Some other nations of the world had done it through dialogue, referendum and it worked out.”