…Lauds court for freeing 35 IPOB members

From Jeff Amechi

Agbodo, Onitsha 

THE leader of Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra  (MASSOB), Mr. Uchenna Madu, yesterday, urged Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court Abuja to quash the remaining five charges against the Leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

Madu stated that Kanu and other Biafra agitators in detention did not commit any offence against Nigeria rather than agitating for independence, saying it is supported and backed by the United Nation’s universal declaration on self-determination.

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The MASSOB leader in a statement said that Biafra agitation was only a reaction to the many injustices, exclusion, second class citizenship, born to rule philosophy, marginalisation and other forms of inequality that characterise the Nigerian state. 

  “We rejoice with our sister organisation, IPOB, over the discharge and acquittal of its members by the court. It is a triumph of light over darkness, of truth over lies and deceit. As we encourage all genuine pro-Biafra agitators to be steadfast, resolute and consistent, MASSOB also welcomes the striking out of the six charges against Kanu but insist that all the remaining count charges must be withdrawn because Nnamdi Kanu and others did not commit any offence against the Nigerian state,” he said.

  Madu added: “MASSOB, IPOB, Lower Niger Delta, Biafra Peoples National Council (BPNC) and other Biafra agitating groups are not the problem. The Nigerian state as constituted is the major problem. Nigeria is a state where some are first class citizens while others are second class; a state where some are born to rule while others are perpetual outcasts; a state where state policy deliberately denies Biafra land critical developmental infrastructure while according others same; a state where prejudice, tribalism, exclusion and hate are elevated while nation building is ignored; and a state where it seems the only logic for unity is to share oil resources and not on the basis of consent, mutual respect, fraternity and shared brotherhood.

“For these reasons, true nationhood has remained stillborn, peace has remained elusive and Nigeria has remained in perpetual strife and ever increasing crisis since her founding. These undeniable realities are the reason the Nigerian state is afraid of Biafra and her agitators because we speak of a truth they cannot legitimately counter.  We speak of a truth they know they are guilty of. So, out of weakness and fear, they resort to repression, persecution and detention.”

  MASSOB warned that the “arrest and detention of Nnamdi Kanu and others at different prisons and DSS detention camps will not take away the problem; neither will it stop the struggle insofar as the conditions that birthed Kanu and other agitators remain. You cannot beat a child and ask the child not to cry. Arresting Nelson Mandela did not stop the Apartheid struggle; neither did arresting Kwame Nkrumah stop the independence struggle in Ghana. Such examples are evident all through history.”