MASSOB condemns ‘Owerri Conference’

The Movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), has described the gather­ing of some Igbo leaders at Owerri, last Thursday, orgainsed by the Prof. Igariwey leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, as a mere jamboree, stating that it failed woefully to address the present yearn­ings of Ndigbo.

The Comrade Uchenna Madu-led faction of MAS­SOB made this assertion in a press statement re­leased yesterday, a copy of which was mailed to The AUTHORITY on Sunday.

Part of the statement reads: “The leadership of the current Ohanaeze Ndigbo failed woefully on the yearnings and expec­tations of Ndigbo, in their conference in Owerri.

“They consciously and systematically avoided raising the fundamental and paramount issues that are affecting the Igbo na­tion in Nigeria which in­cludes the quest and agita­tion for Biafra restoration, the release of Biafra Free­dom fighters like Nnamdi Kanu, Benjamin Onwuka, Lotachukwu Okoli, Chi­diebere Onwudiwe and 21 others at Awka/Onitsha prisons.

“Igariwey-led Ohanaeze also kept mute on the in­sensitive and extra-judicial killings of non-violent Bi­afra agitators on February 9 at Aba and on May 30, 2016 at Nkpor, Anambra State.”

MASSOB stressed that the decisions they reached at the Owerri Conference is rejected and disregarded since it failed to address the above stated burning contemporary issues both­ering the Igbo nation.

The pro-Biafra group querried that “how can Ohanaeze Ndigbo that claims to be the umbrella of Ndigbo be insensitive to the plight of Ndigbo in Nigeria?

“They deliberately chose to be cowards in defence of political, economic, social and religious interests of Ndigbo in Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, a pro-Biafra activist currently based in Australia, Mr Chijioke Ede, said, the dream of an independent State of Biafra remains the lasting solution to enhance socio-infrastructural develop­ment of Igboland and the rest of Nigeria, as the case may be, by encouraging enterprise and competi­tion among states, just as obtained in the United States of America (USA) and other civilised na­tions.

Mr Ede who was the Enugu State secretary of Igbo Youths Association, which eventually collapsed into MASSOB, before he left for Australia in May, 2014, dropped this hints in his mail to The AUTHOR­ITY on Sunday.

He lamented that the pains he suffered at the hands of law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, be­cause of his astute belief in the Biafra struggle before he left the shores of the country, but emphasized that they are also build­ing up pressure groups from outside the country, in support of the Biafra struggle.

Ede stated that, “On January 2, 2013, we were attacked at our meeting centre; as we were running for our safety, some of us were shot. I was hospital­ised for 33 days before I was discharged. My body still bears the marks of the gunshots and torture.”

He stated that he would return home at the appro­priate time to join forces with the home front once again, because there is no going back in the struggle to emancipate the Igbo na­tion from political slavery. (The Authority)