Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has raised alarm that the police have arrested 40 of her members at St. Theresa’s Cathedral, Nsukka Monday while attending a special thanksgiving mass in commemoration of 49th anniversary of the declaration of the defunct Biafran Republic by the late warlord Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
The zonal leader of MASSOB in Enugu North, Chief James Omeke said that it was surprising that police ambushed the Catholic cathedral and quietly sneaked into the church and arrested the members in their solemn moment of the special thanksgiving mass for the republic declaration 49th anniversary.
“The arrest, harassment and intimidation of the members would not deter movement for the actualization of Biafran Republic but would spur the struggle to freedom; Nigerian government has not been fair to the freedom of Biafra”.
Meanwhile, the Enugu State Police Command through its spokesman SP Ebere Amaraizu has said that no fewer than thirteen suspected persons believed to be members of MASSOB/Biafra Independent Movement (B.I.M.) were nabbed by security operatives of the state command in the early hours at Edinburgh axis of Ogui Enugu.
The members were rounded up based on intelligence information that that suspects had converged with with flags, T.Shirts with different inscriptions portraying MASSOB/BIM at Edinburgh axis of Ogui to commence protest march before the security operatives swooped on them.
Suspects in their reactions maintained that they are not members of MASSOB but of Biafran Independent Movement (B.I.M), stating that they converged to pray at the spot before embarking on peaceful march with flags in commemoration of Biafran independence.
It could be recalled that the state command had earlier warned against protest by any group of persons under any aegis, maintaining that no iota of lawlessness will be entertained from any individual or group of persons fanning embers of unlawful act aimed at causing breakdown of law and order in the state. (Vanguard)
