Mr. Foster Okolie
Nigerian Chief of Army Staff.General Farouk has reiterated the Nigerian military commitment to crushing members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), even as the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) has condemned the ongoing serial killings of the harmless agitators for self government.
The Army Chief gave the assurance recently during a military parade at Ibadan, Oyo state.
This was coming in the wake of the recent unfortunate massacre of well over 350 members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign States of Biafra
The two Igbo leading secessionist groups, are currently agitating for referendum and consequently self determination from the Nigerian State as a result of floods of injustice being melted against them by the Nigerian State.
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu
Impeccable sources revealed that very active members of the two agitating groups including those who absconded from Nigeria to Switzerland and Australia in Europe, Asia and America have been listed for elimination, with mouthwatering price tags for informants whose information can lead to the arrest of the Biafra agitators.
Protesting the sad development, an uncle to the MASSOB’s Director of Fund Raising, Mr. Foster Okolie, who was said to have absconded to Australia since 2008 for fear of being killed, told our reporter that Nigerian security had threatened and quizzed his family members at four different occasions, compelling them to produce ‘Foster’ dead or alive.
Foster’s uncle who gave his name as Mazi Vincent Okolie, said they have been living in fear and trepidation since 2008 when their son travelled out of the country for fear of being killed, as it is every day experience in Nigeria.
Mazi Okolie disclosed that shortly before Foster travelled abroad in 2008, there was day a detachment of Nigerian Army invaded his brother’s compound and killed Foster’s parents and their last daughter, including other 10 persons that were present at a MASSOB meeting that took place in his house.
Mr. Foster Okolie, late Ikonso , Emma Powerful and several others had been active members of the MASSOB/IPOB when they were in Nigeria and they made no pretences about their passion for an independent state of Biafra and equally fought hard to see it come to reality. This however, exposed them to constant harassments, attacks and undue hostility from Nigerian security forces that declared them wanted before they escaped from the country. Even while outside Nigeria, they have been supporting the activities of MASSOB/IPOB morally and financially and the Nigerian government had been aware all along and even attempted severally to visit the hostility on the family members of Mr. Foster Okolie, Emma Powerful and other wanted MASSOB/IPOB members who are making a living outside Nigeria.
President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Pastor Sampson Olasupo Adeniyi Ayokunle warned the federal government on the dangers of killing MASSOB and IPOB members because of their demand for a separate government.
The clergy asked government to dialogue with the MASSOB/IPOB and make the Igbos truly a part of Nigerian nation in all ramifications.
In his reaction, President of the Civil Liberty Organization, Igho Akeregha, asked the Nigerian military to stop wasting lives of youths from the South east region because of persistent agitations for self government.
Akeregha warned that suppressive approach to the youths of Igbo extraction will have a muffled effect in the social order in the country,
Another Human Rights Activist and former President of Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) had asked President Muhammadu Buhari to pull Nigerian troops out from the South east following the perceived serial killings of the agitating IPOB and MASSOB members in and outside the country.
Agbakoba advised federal government to make Nigeria an investment hub for West and Central Africa, adding that nobody will invest in a politically unstable environment as it is the case with Nigeria.
According to him, “When the economy is buoyant and fairness and equity is returned, the youths will have no reason to agitate for secession”.
In his reaction, Dr. Anselem Odinkalu, former Chairman Nigerian National Human Rights Commission (NNHRC) also condemned government of Nigeria for selective attacks and killing of Biafra agitators.
He slammed the government for the killing of 7 members of MASSOB/IPOB who returned from Israel and the United States of America.
Odinkalu who is recently the open team Manager for African Program of Society advised government to stop using force in addressing cases of agitation, adding that they more the Igbo youths are killed, the more younger ones join in pressing harder for secession and self government.
Nigerian security operatives in an operation involving the Army, Air force and the Police in Ihiala community of Anambra State arrested recently 200 members of the IPOB and MASSOB
Recall that the arrest of members of the two secessionist groups followed recent attacks on soldiers and civilians in Orlu town adding that there is doubt as to whether they have killed them as efforts to locate them in any correctional centre has proved abortive.
IPOB/MASSOB members who were using Ihiala as their base had reportedly ambushed and revenged the killing of some of their members at the community
Police spokesman, Mr. Frank Mbah said since the beginning of the year, the activities of MASSOB/IPOB militias through their ferocious demand for secession, has adversely affected the security situation in the area, adding that “There have been attacks on civilians, police and military personnel on checkpoints and escort duty.
Mbah recalled with regrets that troops of 34 Brigade in conjunction with the Anambra State Police Command, recently carried out raids in Osumoghu and Lilu in Ihiala Local Government Area, leading to the killing of 35 IPOB members with the IPOB training camps destroyed.”
Last week, he disclosed that a raid operation was conducted in a forest close to Lilu village in Ihiala axis of Anambra State by combined troops of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force and the Nigeria Police, adding that the militia men were believed to have escaped with their dead colleagues and varying degrees of gunshot wounds,”
Recall that the Igbos in Nigeria had been facing all sorts of hostile and inhuman treatments from Nigerian Government since after the end of Civil war in Nigeria in 1970.
Nigerians from the South/Eastern Region of Nigeria are always treated like slaves and second class citizens despite their huge economic contributions to Nigeria and such degradation had even become an official policy of almost all the regimes that had governed Nigeria since 1970. President Buhari’s regime had aggravated the whole situation by adding a dose of apartheid against people of Igbo extraction.
His hatred for Igbos are evident in his words and action to the extent that in 2017 he dispatched his military men to the South Eastern States under the guise of a routine military exercise known as Operation Python Dance and allegedly instructed them to shoot Igbo boys at sight over flimsy excuses. Thus at one operation at Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s house, over 158 Igbo boys were shot dead in cold blood. Today, there is no day that passes by without seeing open massacre of Igbo youths simply because they decided to join the MASSOB and IPOB led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu as a platform to air their views and grievances against injustices and in human treatments.
As this group organized a peaceful protest in expression of their grievances, the Nigerian President quickly declared them a terrorist organization even as the deadly herdsmen and bandits continue to kill and cause mayhem to the people of the North East without the Government uttering a word of condemnation against them mainly because they are Fulani, the president’s tribesmen. It is on account of these segregation and nepotism that the President allegedly ordered the arrest of the IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who is currently being detained in DSS detention facility in Nigeria having been illegally arrested and extradited from Kenya vide extra-ordinary rendition by Nigerian Government.
Also recall the way the Israeli journalists who were shooting a documentary in South Eastern part of Nigeria were quickly arrested and detained for twenty days in DSS custody at mere suspicion that they were supporting the activities of the MASSOB and IPOB morally and financially
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