Pro-Biafra agitators have called on the United Nations (UN) to step up action by granting freedom to Biafra with a view to stopping unending killings and brutal treatment already meted out to people of the defunct eastern region by Nigerian government.
Okigwe zonal leaders of the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Biafra Independence Movement (BIM) made the call in a statement jointly issued to mark the 50th anniversary of Biafra and MASSOB’s 18th anniversary.
The statement signed by Chief Samuel Ogubuike (Zonal Leader Okigwe), Ezeugo Kingsley (Elders Council, Okigwe), and Rev. Linus Iweanya (Elders Council, Okigwe) was made available to journalists yesterday in Owerri.
It reads: “Beside the over two million people that were killed in the genocide that took place during the Nigeria/Biafran civil war, thousands of pro-Biafra agitators have been killed in Nigeria.
“More than 500 pro- Biafra agitators were massacred on March 29, 2003 in Okigwe while hundreds have been gruesomely murdered in various parts of Nigeria because of their stand that Biafra must be independent.
“MASSOB and BIM have been taking care of the families of those people killed in Okigwe and ex-Biafra soldiers who sustained injuries during the civil war without any compensation from government.
“It is all these unfair treatments to Biafrans that is fueling the endless agitation for freedom and we are calling on international organizations especially the United Nations to hasten up the process of Biafra independence.’’
