MASSOB Counters Buhari, Sure of UN Referendum On Biafra

MOVEMENT for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), yesterday disagreed with President Muhammadu Buhari over his statement that Nigeria was indivisible, describing it as his ‘personal opinion.’

The Movement also boasted that the United Nations (UN) would conduct a referendum for Biafrans to decide on the popularity and acceptance of their cause. The group took a swipe at the military’s decision to quell pro-Biafra protests, just as the South East governors enjoined the protesters to tow the line of peace.

But the Acting General Officer Commanding (GOC) 82 Division of Nigerian Army, Enugu, Brig-General Ibrahim Attahiru yesterday re-emphasised the warning against insecurity which the Division issued on Monday to pro-Biafra protesters. “Agitators should know that there is a certain borderline they should not cross,” he said.

Briefing journalists yesterday in his office on the activities of pro-Biafran demonstrators across cities in the South East and South South zones, the GOC stressed that as a reminder, the Nigerian Army would like to send an unequivocal warning to all and sundry, more especially to “all those threatening and agitating for the dismemberment of the country, committing treasonable felony and arson, as well as wanton destruction of lives and property, that once deployed, the Nigerian Army shall apply the Rules of Engagement (RoE) to the letter in order for peace to prevail.”

However, in a bid to douse the anxiety and end the demonstrations in the South East, occasioned by MASSOB and the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), the Forum of South East Governors yesterday called for an expanded meeting of stakeholders in the zone before reaching a decision.

The emergency meeting, which is in furtherance of the forum’s meeting yesterday in Enugu, is scheduled for on Sunday, November 22, same place. Expected at the meeting are National Assembly members, ministers and other invited stakeholders from the zone.

At the end of the rescheduled meeting at the Enugu State Government House, the governors also called on “MASSOB and IPOB to continue to tow the line of peace as this is the only way to ensure economic development of the zone.”

In what is regarded as its first meeting in Enugu in the new dispensation, the governors expressed concern on the state of the roads in the zone and security.

The meeting, chaired by the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, in its three-point communique read by the governor, resolved to “appoint a high level economic advisory committee to harness the economic potential of the people of the South East working together.

The acting GOC said the recent increase in the pro-Biafra agitations in some parts of the South East and South South zones of the country by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other similar groups was becoming worrisome.

“In cities like Aba, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Abakaliki and Enugu among others, cases of outright lawlessness, threat to lives and properties have been recorded during demonstrations and protests by these groups,” he said.

In a related development, there are indications that the battle to secure the release of the leader of IPOB Nnamdi Kanu has entered a new phase as the group’s directors world wide have engaged the services of renowned lawyers to tackle the Federal Government.