The struggle to actualise the sovereign state for Biafra has taken a new diplomatic turn that might hasten the dreams of the agitators sooner than later, Daily Sun reports.
To this end, a delegation of some Igbo leaders known as the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), said to be the main sponsor of the trip, and South East Elders Forum, armed with petitions, had visited to the United States of America’s House of Representatives in Washington DC and also to the United Nations, headquarters, New York, respectively, to drive home their point of self actualisation from Nigeria.
Daily Sun reports that the petition from one of the members of the delegation, Dr. Dozie Ikedife on arrival in Nigeria explained that the team spent a couple of weeks in the United States to ensure that the message was properly delivered to the recipients for necessary actions.
Ikedife said the two bodies made up of traditional rulers, religious leaders, academics, technocrats and leaders of thought, in many fields of human endeavour in Igboland, were concerned about the Igbo ethnic group, Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world.
The petition read in part: “We have suffered genocidal crimes committed against us by Nigerians, especially those of the Northern Nigeria, dating back to 1945. This climaxed in the pogrom of 1966/67. By the general agreement of the people of Eastern Nigeria, we decided to distance ourselves from the rest of Nigeria, based on many waves of unjustified killings. We therefore, elected to be known as people of independent state of Biafra in 1967. Immediately after this, Nigeria with her allies, declared war on this young state of Biafra. Unprepared, unexpected, we were forced to defend ourselves for 30 months before we were overwhelmed by complete blockade, starvation, heavy indiscriminate bombing of churches, markets and other public places. We were forced to surrender to Nigeria’s allied forces on January 12, 1970, to save the rest of the Igbo population from complete eradication,” the letter read.
The delegation in the petition said despite window-dressing declaration of ‘no victor, no vanquished’ and ostensible policy of rehabilitation, reconstruction and reintegration, economic strangulation and systematic exclusion of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria had followed since then.
It articulated what it called unprovoked, unjustifiable sporadic killings of the Igbo that had continued with instances of the Igbo massacre in Jos and Kano genocide which culminated to 1966 pogrom when, according to the petition, over 66,000 Eastern Nigerian civilians were killed in the North, May 29, 1967 when over 200,000 soldiers and civilians were killed in Western and Northern Nigeria, as well as in 1967 to 1970 civil war when 3,000,000 were said to be killed, among other killings.
It noted that the Igbo, on May 30, 2017, decided to observe a ” sit-at-home” to ruminate on their fate in Nigeria, as well as remember their people who have been unjustifiably killed before, during and after the Biafra war. It said that the innocuous sit-at-home order was widely obeyed by Igbo people all over Nigeria, to the surprise of the rest of Nigerians.
“Following this, various Arewa (Northern Nigeria) youth groups unanimously issued a 3-month quit notice to all Igbo people residing or doing business in the Northern Nigeria to leave all parts of Northern Nigeria before October 1, 2017. Failure to do so will attract dire consequences including deaths and confiscation of their properties and businesses. The elders of Northern Nigeria instead of condemning this threat, the
