MASSOB accuses police, army of killing members

Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra has accused soldiers and policemen of killing three of its members in a raid on Monday. The security agents, the group also said, arrested six of its members during the raid.
In a statement on Wednesday, MASSOB’s Deputy National Director of Information, Mr. Chris Mocha, said the raid was carried out at Ogbunike, along the Enugu/Onitsha Expressway.
The combined team of soldiers and policemen in four Hilux van, he said, opened fire on the MASSOB members when they were holding their meeting.
He named the deceased as Mr. Somto Udeolisa, John Ekwerekwu and Ikwunne Agbata, while those arrested were Mr. Augustine Icha, Dieke Cletus, Dibor Donatus, Ignatius Ekwem, Adiogbu Jude, and Ezekiel Metuh.
Items removed from the MASSOB office, he said, were Biafran flags, a sign board, N10,500, six pairs of trousers,  shirts, Biafran soldiers’ uniforms, six boots and belts.
Mocha, who said the raid was arbitrary, demanded the unconditional release of  MASSOB members and the immediate release of the corpses, among their other items.
Meanwhile, the group has threatened a showdown with the authorities if its leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, is dragged to court for treason.
Speaking to newsmen in Onitsha, the Regional Administrator for Onitsha North, Mr. Vincent Ilo, said  though the group had remained non-violent, it would be forced to act if the Federal Government preferred treason charge  on Uwazuruike.
On the group’s June 8 sit-at-home order, Ilo said it was to seek God’s intervention for the emancipation ofNdigbo as well as to remember the six Igbo murdered in Apo in 2005.
He said, “As you are aware, six innocent Igbo traders were killed in Apo village, Abuja extra-judicially on June 8, 2005 by policemen led by a Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Danjuma.
“Seven years after the murder of our kinsmen, the principal actor in the said murder is still walking the streets a free man.
“It is imperative that the International community should know our security challenges in Nigeria. It is on this premise that MASSOB requests Ndigbo all over the world to sit at home on June 8, to reflect on the continued massacre of our people in Nigeria”, he said.