Barely 24 hours
after global rights watch, Amnesty International indicted Nigerian security
forces in the killing no fewer than 150 pro-Biafra protesters in South-East
Nigeria, the Movement for Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra
(MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have disclosed they lost
more than 2,000 members to the security agents. They blasted the Nigerian Army
for denying that they did not kill unarmed members of the pro-Biafran groups
between 2015 and this year.
While commending
Amnesty International for its report, IPOB said the respected group
under-reported the killings of its members, stressing that far more than 150 of
them were killed and injured in the period under review.
The Media and
Publicity Secretary of IPOB Mr. Emma Powerful while reacting to Amnesty
International report said that over 2000 members were killed, 750 missing, and
567 undergoing medical treatment in different hospitals.
According to
Powerful, “The report was welcomed by IPOB which has been at the forefront of
the struggle for the restoration of Biafra nation. But the 150 people who were
reportedly killed in the report by Amnesty International was not the accurate
number of IPOB and Biafrans killed since August 2015 till date.
“Moreover, in IPOB’s
records and statistics gathered from different parts of Biafra, we have over
2000 members killed, 750 missing till date, we have not seen their dead bodies
and we are still searching for them, we also have 567 members undergoing
medical treatment in different hospitals.
“In the same vein,
we have 370 people undergoing torture in different prisons and security cells
across the country.
“As we are talking
right now, the DSS and other security agencies in Nigeria are searching for
members of IPOB across the country, Some have been in the DSS secret cells
since six months now without taking them to court while they were all kept
incommunicado in different places.
“Importantly, we
commend the report from Amnesty International which stands bold to condemn the
crime against humanity committed by the government of Nigeria and her security
agencies rbefore the world.
“We also urge
Amnesty International and other relevant human rights organizations like Human
Rights Watch to make more enquiries and investigations into this barbaric
killings of members of IPOB.”
The leader of
MASSOB, Mr. Uchenna Madu said the denial of complicity by the Nigeria Army was
an act of cowardice and fear.
“MASSOB view the
quick denial by the Nigerian Army as an act of cowardice and fear because their
primitive acts backed by religious/ ethnic hatred against the people of Biafra
are now bare to the whole World.” He said, “With this latest denial by the n Army
on their evil against the children of Chukwu Okike Abiama, soon the whole world
will behold the nakedness and filthiness of the Nigeria Army. They can’t deny
their daylight evil against the Biafrans because we have evidences even more
from our sister organization, IPOB including the dead bodies of our
members. We are set to disgrace the
Buhari-led Nigeria Army at the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICC).”
In its reaction,
Igbo apex body, Ohanaeze Ndigbo reiterated its condemnation of the killing of
pro Biafra demonstrators insisting that the act was totally wrong.
Speaking to one of
our reporters in Enugu, the Secretary General of Ohanaeze Dr. Joe Nwaorgu said
“this thing happened long ago and we had reacted at that point in time. First,
the one at Aba and secondly that of Onitsha and Ohaneze took a stand on all those
things.
“It’s not the army
that will tell us how many they killed it’s the boys that will tell us how many
of their members were killed. We have always condemned extra judicial killings;
I was blunt in my condemnation of the episode, I called it continued blood
letting; the act stands condemned totally.
“You can’t shoot at
defenseless citizens, you didn’t give them any warning, you go straight to fire
live bullets. No prior announcement for dispersal, no tear gas, nothing, just
straight use of live bullets, that is wrong.”
Also speaking MASSOB
National Director of Information, Comrade Samuel Edeson said the figure
released by Amnesty International was incorrect.
“They did not give
the exact figure of our members killed by Nigerian soldiers. The number they
recorded is very small; the people killed by soldiers between August 2015 and
August 2016 are over 2000 pro Biafra activists.
“But I don’t blame
them because that is the information they got.
About what the army
is saying, I am not surprised because Nigeria is good in deception. When you go
to the police they will always defend themselves, that’s what the army is
doing.
“Nobody has ever
recorded that MASSOB or IPOB moves with weapons not to talk of attacking
anyone. It is an attempt by the army to destroy the image of pro Biafra
activists. I only want to tell the army that they can fool some people
sometimes but cannot fool other people all the times. But they should know that
God is watching.
What we need is the
freedom of our people and the release of Nnamdi Kanu, Benjamin Onwuka and
others in their custody.”
The President of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Imo State, Ambassador Azunna Akpele, in his reaction called
for the prosecution of the indicted security agents for genocide saying that it was part of the
grand design by the Nigerian state to exterminate Ndigbo.
According to him, “
the Nigeria security agencies should be prosecuted for genocide because it is a
grand design by the Nigerian state to exterminate the Ndigbo. What we are
experiencing is nothing but state-sponsored terrorism against Ndigbo” .
Speaking in the same
vein, the National Coordinator of the Njem Igbo Movement, Comrade Pascal
Egoigbo said that security agents must not be allowed to get away with mass
murder as they must be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“We thank the
Amnesty International for drawing the attention of the entire world to how the Nigerian security agencies
including the military have been killing innocent Biafran people who were
protesting against their maltreatment by the Nigerian state.
“The people are
being pushed to the wall because the fact that we decided to carry out our
agitation in a non-violent manner was not a sign of weakness, but we will not
continue to tolerate the killings of our people by the security agencies.”
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