Biafra Protest Rages In South East, Group Vows To Shut Down Aba on Monday - SUN

■Group marches in Aba, vows to shut down city Monday

FROM: OKEY SAMPSON, ABA

Members of Indigenous People of Bi­afra (IPOB) on yesterday protested round the major streets of Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State over the continued detention of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu of the Radio Bi­afra fame with a vow to shot down the city on Monday. This was in de­fiance of the warning of the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase for the group to discon­tinue its violent protests across the South East.

The IGP had in a statement issued through the Spokes­person of the force, Olabisi Kolawole warned that the group should stop its protest as information suggested that members of IPOB were plan­ning to use dangerous weap­ons during its protest in some of the southeast states of the country.

The protest which started as early as 7.00am saw mem­bers of IPOB march peace­fully through the streets of Aba in their thousands, carrying Biafran flags, flex bearing the image of their detained leader and chanting solidarity songs.

They also carried placards some of which called on the Federal Government and other International bodies to come to their assistance in order to help them achieve a sovereign state of Biafra and the release of their leader, Kanu.

Sunday Sun gathered that as early as 7am the pro­testers had assembled at a location near Ariaria Inter­national market where they were at initial stage pre­vented from taking off by a combined team of Police and other security agencies.

However, between 11am and 12noon, members of IPOB re-grouped and went round Ariaria International market with a bell warning that the market would close for business on Monday for a proposed mega rally, stress­ing that anybody that would defy the order would be seen as anti Biafra.

After beating the security web, the group around noon took off from a different lo­cation to match along major streets of Aba, including Faulks road, Aba-Owerri, Aba-Ikot Ekpene among oth­er places, causing gridlock.

The group before heading back to town made a stop­over in front of the office of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA channel 6 Aba, located along the Aba- Ikot Ekpenne road. They were however prevented by the police to get close to the gate of the national televi­sion where they had wanted to voice out reasons for their peaceful protest.

Some of the protesters who spoke to our reporter said that they decided to em­bark on the protest as a mark of respect for their leader, Kanu who they said has been incarcerated by the federal government and was refused to be granted bail despite the peaceful path that he (Kanu) and other members of the group have chosen to let the world know the level of marginalization and dehu­manization the southeast and south-south states have suf­fered even when they were the gooses that lay the eggs other parts of the country are enjoying today.

“Look at the deplorable nature of our roads. Water in the south-south especially the oil producing states and communities have been pol­luted. Are we talking about gas flaring that is going on in these states? Farmers are not planting again because their farmlands are no longer pro­ducing. Poverty is eating up the people whose resources is being used to sustain the economy of the country.

“We have said it and we are going to continue saying it that we are tired of being part of the country called Ni­geria where things go wrong and when you ask questions, people will call for your head. This is just the beginning of the struggle and we shall con­tinue to push further until our leader (Kanu) is released and until the dream of our fore­fathers for the actualization and realization of a sovereign state of Biafra is realised. It is not going to come through a violent means, but a non-violent one; our forefathers have fought the war that we are supposed to fight, so any person thinking that Biafra is going to come through violent means is just wasting his or her precious time”, one of the protesters said.

Soldiers and policemen were stationed at strategy lo­cations of the city, but it was not clear whether there was any clash between the secu­rity agents and the protesters.

Abia State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO DSP Ezekiel Udeviotu Onyeke could not be reached for com­ments, but a senior police of­ficer who wouldn’t want to be named said the presence of the police was to forestall any possible breakdown of law and order in the city.

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