Igbo Mandate Congress IMC wants to bring to the attention of all
Biafran protesters and agitators that the greatest genocide ever under
the guise of stopping separatist MASSOB agitators was under the tenure
of Peter Obi, as Governor of Anambra State, Achike Udenwa as Governor of
Imo State and Olusegun Obasanjo as President of Nigeria.
Biafran agitators should hold these three men responsible for
killing thousands of innocent civilians in the guise of seeking for
members of Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra
(MASSOB). Nigerian soldiers numbering over 200 were invited into Anambra
State in June 2006 by Governor Peter Obi and in the process murdered
estimated 5000 innocent Igbos in the guise of rooting out MASSOB
agitators. This was done with the ever gleeful support of ex-president
Obasanjo in the infamous operation ‘Shoot-at Sight Order’
During these periods that spanned till early 2009, Nigerian
soldiers were on rampage at Onitsha, Nnewi, Oba, Ihiala and environs
shooting, killing, and maiming anything that has a suspicion of being
MASSOB. As the shootings were going on, real MASSOB members escaped into
various dens while stranded travelers, unsuspecting trader and
residents were branded MASSOB and shot. By the time the exercise was
over, estimated 5000 people were killed and the affected families took
the remains of their relatives and buried quietly to avoid being killed
too by the rampaging soldiers. All these wickedness was at the behest of
an APGA Governor claiming to be a follower of ex Biafran leader
Odumegwu Ojukwu.
It is curious to the leadership of Igbo Mandate Congress, IMC, that the same people who ordered the massacre of thousands of Igbos under the guise of anti-Biafra stance in the past have now come out to secretly fund aspects of the pro Biafra agitations, and aspects of hate speeches against other tribes due to political downturn.
Therefore, as Igbos negotiate their way out of the Biafra quagmire
in the Nigerian context, we must remind ourselves that the greatest
enemies of Igbo common good is not Buhari, Tinubu and their APC. as
being bandied now. It is Igbo politicians who corner the lot of their
people for personal aggrandizement. It is Igbo politicians who invited
Federal Troops to kill unarmed civilians without exhausting avenues of
negotiations and diplomacy.
MASSOB issued a statement to that effect when its then
Director of Information, (now factional leader of MASSOB), Mr. Uchenna
Madu, speaking on behalf of the leader of MASSOB, Chief Ralph
Uwazuruike on the 12th of November, 2013,said that Peter Obi and Achike
Udenwa are responsible for numerous death of Bafran agitators. According
to Madu, “We hold Peter Obi responsible for the killings. This reminds
us about the 2006 shoot-on-sight order by Governor Peter Obi who
massacred about 2,000 MASSOB members.
“We shall arrest him and pay him back in his own coin in our own
way immediately he steps down as the governor because his recent action
of killing MASSOB members will heavily affect APGA chances of winning
this election.”
In another statement issued by the leader of MASSOB, Chief Ralph
Uwazurike, and signed by MASSOB Deputy National Director of Information,
Mazi Chris Mocha on the 12th of Aprili, 2014, the group alleged that
the former governor and his Imo State counterpart, Dr. Achike Udenwa,
had between 2003 and 2006 deployed federal troops from different states
and allegedly ordered them to shoot MASSOB members at sight. According
to the new MASSOB spokesman “Mr. Peter Obi and former Imo State
governor, Dr. Achike Udenwa, had ordered the killing of MASSOB members
between 2003 and 2006 and would be tried in court in due course. Obi had
on May 11, 2006 under the Presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo deployed over
200 federal troops most of who were of Hausa and Fulani tribes to
Onitsha and issued a shoot-at-sight order to them. Thousands of our
members were killed, including a pregnant woman and 65 others still
missing,”
Kenneth Anyanwu, MASSOB director of information, told Newswatch
that MASSOB was on its way to a solidarity rally in Okigwe in support of
American war against terrorism in Iraq when a combined team of the
armed mobile policemen laid ambush and opened fire on them. Anyanwu
accused Governor Achike Udenwa of Imo State of being behind the killing
of MASSOB members. He said Ralph Uwazuruike, MASSOB leader, was arrested
and detained at the Imo State police headquarters near Government
House, Owerri, before the Presidency ordered his transfer to Force
Headquarters, Abuja , on Monday, March 31, 2005.
Soon corpses of MASSOB members were allegedly killed under the nose
of Peter Obi and Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan and thrown into Ezu
River. According to MASSOB Director of Information, Mr Uchenna Madu’s
statement of February 6th, 2013, the corpses found floating on Ezu River
in Amansea community were MASSOB members, who were arrested in the
state and secretly executed by the security agents without proper trial
to cover their tracks.
Madu said: “MASSOB with deep sense of grief and sorrow wishes to
inform Mr. Ban Ki Moon (UN Secretary General), President Goodluck
Jonathan, US president, Barrack Obama, United Nations Human Rights
Commission (UNHRC) and Amnesty International about the gruesome murder
of MASSOB members by the Special Anti-Robbery Squared SARS, of Nigeria
Police Force, Awkuzu Anambra State.”
He said some of the MASSOB members identified as Basil Ogbu, Michael Ogwa, Sunday
Omogo, Philip Nwankpa, Eze Ndubisi, Ebuka Eze, Obinna Ofor, Joseph Udoh
and Uchechukwu Ejiofor were arrested at the MASSOB security office
Onitsha, Anambra State on November 9, 2012 by a combined team of Nigeria
security agents (Army, Police and SSS) and were later handed over to
SARS headquarters, Awkuzu Anambra State where they were detained until
their suspicious disappearance.
Igbo Mandate Congress demand a public inquiry into all the
killings of MASSOB, IPOB, Biafra Zionist and other Biafra groups to
determine who invited the soldiers, levels of atrocities and levels of
culpability at various levels of authority. The inquiry should also
determine whether all avenues of diplomacy and peace were exhausted
before the violent use of force was authorized. The inquiry should
determine the identity of all the thousands of non-MASSOB members
gruesomely murdered and let the indicted public officers be made to
apologize publicly.
This public inquiry will definitely expose the level at which Igbo
politicians paved the way for all the bloodshed. We have never heard
that any Yoruba Governor invited soldiers to kill OPC members. We never
herd that any South South Governor invited soldiers to kill militants.
Blaming President Muhammadu Buhari, whose government is just six
months, for all the atrocities against Ndigbo, while the real culprit
meander away, is not correct and not according to the laws of natural
justice. Olusegun Obasanjo, Peter Obi, Achike Udenwa and their cheer
leaders must apologize for genocide against innocent people, then the
healing process can start.
The Federal Government should release Nnamdi Kanu and
IPOB Protesters. They should also release Ben Onwuka of Biafran Zionist
Movement languishing in Enugu Prisons for hosting Biafran Flag in a
Radio Station. and all MASSOB members in detention, rehabilitate them
and send them home.
They should speed up an inquiry to audit the causes of
death of thousands of innocent civilians under the guise of stopping
MASSOB agitations. If these steps are taken urgently, lots of tempers
will cool down and the agitators can come to a round table. Any advise
to the contrary is self serving and will compound the already waiting
time bomb.
Rev Obinna Akukwe
Director General, Igbo Mandate Congress (IMC)
cc: Barrack Obama, David Cameron, Ban Ki Moon
No comments:
Post a Comment
Post Your Comments Here