Biafra: Why we’re agitating - MASSOB

New leader of the Movement for the Ac­tualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Solomon Chukwu has given reasons groups are agitating for self-rule in the South East. 

He said the fact that the people from the eastern region could not find peace in Nigeria was the major reason MASSOB is agitating for a state of Biafra.

Chukwu, who spoke through MASSOB’s National Director of Information, Sunny Okereafor said it was better for Nigeria to stay apart and survive than to be together and perish in the process.

Chukwu, a native of Ikwere in Riv­ers State, restated the determination of the people from the East to have a state of their own. He also said the people of the Niger Delta area and South East are part of Biafra, and remain committed to its actualisation.

He dismissed reports that the people of South South states like Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River are not Biafrans, adding that the former eastern region has re­fused to be deceived by what he described as Federal Government’s divide and rule policy.

“Anybody who says Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River states are not part of Biafra is deceiving himself. These are Bi­afran territories. Biafra encompasses all the states of the former eastern region, includ­ing Anioma clan in Delta State.

“It has been part of the Federal Govern­ment’s divide and rule policy to deceive the world that only Ndigbo want Biafra; but this is false.

“Do you remember Ojukwu’s second in command, Gen. Philip Effiong? Was he not from Akwa Ibom? When he was here, did anybody doubt his commitment to the actu­alisation of Biafra?

“If you see the kind of support from the local people of Ugep, Ikom, Ogoja and adjoining areas when we held our meeting last week at Ugep, you will be shocked. Over 2,000 people registered as MAS­SOB members at that meeting. In fact, from what we saw at the meet­ing, the people of Ogoja, Ugep and Ikom are more Biafran than even Ndigbo.”

He insisted that part of the mar­ginalisation of the former eastern region in Nigeria is the continued detention of the leader of the In­digenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, despite successive court orders, granting him bail and urged the Federal Government to release him.