On the 30th May 1967, Biafra declaration was made by our Late Hero, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who saw the perpetual 
subjugation of his people, those who were unjustly massacred, maimed and imprisoned in the Northern part of Nigeria.
After the Declaration of the sovereign state of Biafra, the Northern elites and Yoruba Oligarchy led by Gen. Yakubu Gowon orchestrated an unprepared war against Biafrans as advised by their colonial master, Britain.
It was a bitter and horrible experience. The cruelty of the genocide which was executed by the Northerners is an unforgettable memory. 3.5 million Biafrans were killed as a result of starvation, kwashiorkor, and brutalization. Our women were raped and their husbands killed. Our young youths were imprisoned just for demanding the freedom of their unborn generation.
The war was executed for 3 years after which there was no compensation nor justice for the war crimes committed by the savages in Nigerian army. The world kept mute. They ridiculed our heroes who were trying to resist the sufferings in their own God-given land. There was never in the history of this chequered country where they were honoured or remembered these great heroes/heroines. Their aggrieved spirits were snubbed and swept under the carpet; they waited until we emerged to speak on their behalf.
After the great genocide, there was never a day in Nigeria that Biafrans have experienced peace. Daily we are being humiliated and killed by the Hausa-Fulani cattle herders and the Nigerian armed forces.
They have molested our children and women. We left our own land and scattered all over the world, all in the name of seeking for asylum. We have been subjugated in all aspects of life.
Now we have decided to go our separate way and build our own nation; the same agitation which our forefathers embarked upon and were sent to their untimely death, yet they would not let us.
Our lives are not safe in Nigeria, but yet they won’t let us go, why? We came out to protest against the marginalization, and the perpetual agony we are going through in our own land, and we were brutally massacred, maimed and arrested.
Our brothers are languishing in prisons, many have been killed in secret cells and detention camps. When we protested against the unlawful incarceration of our leader Nnamdi Kanu who was held extrajudicially, we were shot at with live bullets and many were killed and the wounded were forcefully removed from the hospitals and secretly executed by the Nigerian agents.
On the 30th of May 2016, when we were gathering to honour our Heroes and Heroines neglected for decades by the Nigerian Government and the world at large, it was a bitter scenario; a gory experience which can never be forgotten or forgiven in our lifetime.
Many were killed and corpses of dead ones were taken away to conceal evidence; many are still in detention and some are still in hospitals across Biafra land. Some were doused with acid and still in agony and pain.
We have now decided to honour them in our own way by sitting and praying for their souls in our various homes, yet the Nigerian government still has the audacity to issue threats against those who have decided to observe the sit-at-home command issued by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Isn’t it laughable and crystal clear that we are not free as a people and not wanted in our own land? Is it not evident enough that we are not and can never be part of the
“One Nigeria” slogan? Despite all of this, we have remained strong and survived as a people under harsh conditions. We want to make it clear to the Nigerian government one more time again that we are not born to be ruled with intimidation by Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba forever.
For all the sufferings and pains we have been going through in this concocted entity called Nigeria, we are prepared and ready to violate your threats by sitting at home on 30th May. Never shall we abandoned or fail to give honour to
whom honour is due as far as Biafra is concerned.
Intimidation or threat is meant for cowards, gullible and feeble minded individuals only and not for the hardcore Biafrans. Our fallen heroes will be paid their dues on 30th May 2017 and that is sacrosanct.
By Prisca Chiamaka Abel
