Biafra day celebration turns bloody in Anambra

ACTIVITIES marking this year’s 18th-year-anniversary celebration of new Biafra yesterday turned bloody in Onitsha, Anambra state as members of the Biafra Independence  Movement/Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, BIM/MASSOB accused the joint military task force operating in the state of killing about five of its members.

BIM/MASSOB also accused the military task force of breaking the skulls of four of their members and arresting 206 others in what they termed a most gruesome manner.

Confirming the killings, injuries and arrests to newsmen shortly after the encounter, BIM/MASSOB’s Director of Information, Mazi Chris Mocha stated that while their members gathered at Obosi By-pass along the Onitsha/Owerri road, near Onitsha, the joint military task force including the Army, Navy, Police, Civil Defence, Department of State Services, DSS and others swooped on them with over 45 Hilux vehicles and opened fire, killing five of their members instantly.

According to Mocha, the JTF also used machetes to cut some parts of the bodies of four of their members, including their skulls, adding that the four victims of the machete cuts included Chief Vincent Iloh, Ebuka Emmanuel, Innocent Okolie, and Mrs Virginia Ubaezuonu in the desperate attempts of the JTF to disperse the crowd.

Mocha mentioned Chief Christian Ifejika, Declan Okafor, Gloria Umejesi, Rose Oforbike, Fidelis Oduenyi and 173 others as those arrested and whisked away to the unknown destination by the JTF among the in Onitsha.

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According to Mocha, “Today marks our 18 years of independence anniversary celebration of the New Biafra which is in continuation with our desire to achieve a sovereignty from Nigeria but it is unfortunate that the JTF opened fire on us, even when we did not exhibit any autumn of violence and even when they know that we have a non-violence posture in our quest to actualize Biafra”.

He, however, insisted that the struggle for the actualisation of a new Biafra would continue unabated until the dream becomes a reality.

As at the time of filing this report, yesterday, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Haruna Mohammed (SP), told newsmen on phone that he was not yet aware of such an incident, adding that besides, he is only the spokesman of the police and not of the JTF.