Fury as police parade Biafran agitations in Abia
By Steve Oko
Nine Biafran agitators have been paraded by the police in Umuahia, Abia State amidst public rage.
The new Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Chris Ezike, who paraded the agitators along criminals suspects urged electorates in the state to ignore the call for the boycott of the 2019 general election being championed by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB.
Ezike said IPOB remained an outlawed organisation and should not be allowed to truncate the 2019 polls.
The agitators who were paraded along scores of other suspects are all members of the Ralph Uwazurike -led Biafra Independent Movement (BIM) .
According to the new CP, five of the MASSOB-BIM members were on their way to Owerri Imo State when they were intercepted at Uturu
He said they were arrested on November 25 by soldiers on duty at a military check at Abia State University Uturu.
The police boss added that the other four MASSOB members were arrested on November 26 by police patrol team at Lokpanta in Umunneochi while returning from Owerri.
He said “information is indicative that the suspects may be part of the IPOB group that unleashed mayhem in some states recently”.
Items recovered from the Biafran agitators include : Biafran identity cards, one Biafran national anthem booklet, one Biafran flag, and MASSOB uniforms.
Later in an interview, the agitators who were all decked in MASSOB outfit said they were not IPOB members.
They said some of them were intercepted by soldiers while traveling to Owerri to attend Biafra memorial library while others were picked up on their way back from the event.
Spokesman of the agitators, Mr
Michael Okorafor, said they all hail from Ohozara in Ebonyi State, and had no regrets agitating for Biafra self rule.
He said he had been part of the agitation for 19 years, vowing that no amount of intimidation or harassment would make him to give up.
Okorafor said they were not armed and wondered why they would be arrested and illegally detained when their organisation is not outlawed.
He queried the wisdom of the security operatives in clamping down on nonviolent and unarmed Biafra agitators while treating armed herdsmen and terrorists with kid gloves.
Okorafor called on the international community to come to their rescue.
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