Biafra: Ohaneze Ndigbo speaks on IPOB, MASSOB sit-at-home order

Biafra: Ohaneze Ndigbo speaks on IPOB, MASSOB sit-at-home order

May 29, 2017

Photo: TodayNG

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John Nwodo, the leader of Ohaneze, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation has bared his mind on the proposed sit-at-home protest by Biafra separatist groups: the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB.

The IPOB group plans a sit-at-home protest in the south-east and south-south regions of the country on May 30 to coincide with the annual ‘Biafra Remembrance Day,’ as well as honour the memory of pro-Biafra activists killed by security agencies over the years.

The group called for the closure of all markets within “Biafran territory” on May 30, and a halt of all vehicular movements in the area from 12 a.m. on May 29 till midnight of May 30.

“They have been very law-abiding. In fact, they say everybody should stay at home. They didn’t ask everybody to come and demonstrate on the road. They say stay at home to prayerfully and sorrowfully mourn the dead,” Mr. Nwodo said in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES’ Festus Owete and Ebuka Onyeji.

“People died on both sides… About 1.5 million people on the Biafran side died. When I talk about Biafrans I am not talking about the Igbos. Philip Effiong was from the present Akwa Ibom. He was deputy to Ojukwu. Kogbara from Rivers was administrator in Biafra. Achuzia was GOC. So, Biafra was beyond the confines of what you call Igbo land today? The feeling is still in all those places.”

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police Force has warned IPOB and other separatist groups not to embark on protests on May 30.

In a statement issued by the police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, on Friday, the police said it would not hesitate to deal decisively with any attempt to cause disturbance or carry out any unlawful procession or assembly.

The Enugu State Police Command, through its spokesperson, Ebere Amaraizu, also warned it would resist any attempt by the separatist groups to force people to stay indoors on May 30.

 

The IPOB and Nigeria security agencies have a history of violence confrontations over the past few years.

At least 150 peaceful pro-Biafra protesters were killed between August 2015 and August 2016 as Nigerian security forces embarked on – what Amnesty International described as – a chilling campaign of extrajudicial executions and violence in the Southeast.

During last year’s Biafra Remembrance Day march, at least 60 people were killed as hundreds of protesters clashed with security forces across the Southeast region, according to Amnesty International.

In announcing this year’s protest, the IPOB had said it would resist any attempt to deter it from going ahead with its plan.

“The saboteurs and agents cannot stop us from honouring our fallen heroes because it is our inalienable right to remember and honour those who died in the struggle for Biafra independence,” the group had said.

The Nigerian Civil War, better known as the Biafra war (July 6, 1967 – January 15, 1970), was a war fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup, a counter-coup, and persecution of Igbos living in Northern Nigeria.

In a related development, the 82 Division Nigerian Army on Monday denied an allegation supposedly made by IPOB in a statement released on Monday that “there was sporadic shootings by the Army in Aba and Umuahia axis” and that soldiers opened fire on IPOB members in Aba during a procession in honour of those who died during the Biafra civil war.

“The Division wishes to state there was no soldier at the venue or vicinity where the procession took place. Also, there was no crisis or breakdown of law and order in Aba, Umuahia and in the whole of South Eastern part of Nigeria as to warrant/justify ‘use of firearms’ as falsely and mischievously alleged by IPOB propagandists,” an army spokesperson, Sagir Musa, a colonel, said.

“What is obvious, however, is an increase in the presence of security agencies on routine patrols in different locations in the region, particularly areas that are regarded as real or potential flash points. The aim is to pro-actively checkmate possible security breaches in view of sordid/divisive utterances and in some cases blatant actions by secessionist agitators.”

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Wicked! Muslims Kill Man In Abuja For Urinating Close To A Mosque

Wicked! Muslims Kill Man In Abuja For Urinating Close To A Mosque

TOPICS:AbujaKillMuslim

Not Real Photo

POSTED BY: EDITOR MAY 27, 2017

Tension is mounting among youths in Jiwa and Gwagwa communities in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) over the killing of a middle-aged man yesterday in Jiwa for urinating near a mosque, located in the community.
According to an eyewitness, the man, whose name was not immediately disclosed to newsmen, was passing through one of the streets in the village, and then decided to urinate in a drainage, close to a mosque.

However, just as he was doing that, a man who was sitting at the front of the mosque and watching him, picked a stone and threw at him.

Blueprint gathered that when the man had finished urinating, he picked the same stone and threw it back at the same man.

This action prompted some youths who were at the mosque to descend on him and gave him the beating of his life.

He was said to have fainted and was rushed to a private hospital in Gwagwa village, where he was pronounced dead by doctors in the hospital.

Our correspondent also gathered that it took the intervention of the divisional police officer (DPO), Gwagwa Police Station, and some other prominent persons in the two communities to stop the youth, who wanted to retaliate.

However, every effort to reach the FCT Police Public Relations officer (PPRO), Anjuguri Manza, for comments on the matter proved abortive.

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Kogi State University (KSU) Anyigba, chapter, has said that about 200 of its members were screened out of service during the recently concluded staff verification exercise.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Kogi State University (KSU) Anyigba, chapter, has said that about 200 of its members were screened out of service during the recently concluded staff verification exercise.

The Chairman, ASUU-KSU, Dr. Daniel Aina, who made this known, recently, while addressing journalists, in Lokoja, said the ongoing strike could only be suspended when all issues relating to arrears of salaries, 2015 employment, contract and sabbatical staff were resolved.

The union also said government must resume the monthly instalmental payment of the 2009-2014 arrears of the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA).

According to them, “the Kogi state university management must pay up the outstanding balance of the 2014/2015 arrears of the EAA.” said Aina.

The union, which commended the government for reconstituting the governing council of the university, however, said the more serious issue of payment of arrears of salaries to all categories of its members had not been addressed.

The chairman said the union had, at the inaugural meeting of the governing council appealed to it to expedite action on the resolution of uncleared staff and payment of arrears of salaries.

“This was to create a pathway for the amicable resolution of all outstanding issues before the April 24, 2017. ASUU’s suggestion would seem to have been jettisoned. This is because while staff of other tertiary institutions in Kogi state who have been on strike, have received their February and March 2017 salaries, those of KSU, Anyigba are yet to be paid.

“Since 2014, the Kogi State government has never paid the staff monthly salary in full. The university administration has had to augment the recurrent short falls from its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). Even this amputated salary wage bill has become erratic.

“The government must be told that the propaganda on salary payment is a ruse because artisans, traders and the business environment of the state do not enjoy the patronage that naturally flourishes when workers are paid.

“It is pathetic that economic activities have been seriously hampered in Kogi state due to the non-payment of salaries occasioned by the long-drawn and tortuous staff screening exercises. Many parents whose children and wards have been at home since the strike action commenced, are yet to be paid their salaries.

“To date, several of our members have not received salary since June 2016. In fact, all staff of Kogi State University, Anyigba have not received their February and March 2017 salaries. Neither the government nor the university administration has provided,” Aina stressed.

The lecturers expressed concerns over the consistently deteriorating working conditions of the academic staff of the university that had led to mass exodus of staff.

It also noted a sharp reduction in the funding of the institution by government, regretting that infrastructure and staff development in the school have been left in the hands of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the NEEDS assessment.

The union however condemned the disruption of the peaceful protest embarked upon by students of the university, their arrests, rough handling and detention by security agents while trying to draw government’s attention to their plight.