Biafra: IPOB, MASSOB not involved in seizure of merchant ship
- Groups insist they are not responsible for any seizure of merchant ship with foreigners
- They added that they are non-violent
- MASSOB supports any group fighting for Biafra, irrespective of the mode they carry it out
The reports linking the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State Of Biafra (MASSOB) to the recent seizure and threat to blow up a merchant ship carrying foreigners, are false if recent reports by Vanguard are anything to go by.
These allegations were denied by both pro-Igbo groups which explained that they were not involved in the recent turn of events, as IPOB specifically stated that it remains a violence-free organisation.
The pro-Biafra agitators were alleged to have hijacked a merchant ship with a foreign crew and threatened to blow it up if the Nigerian government does not release its detained leader who is hell bent on the creation of a sovereign state of Biafra.
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But Emma Powerful, who spoke on behalf of IPOB, said the group has a lot of responsible men in the Nigerian society and in diaspora and therefore, cannot involve in any violent activity that may possibly harm or take the life of anybody from within and outside Nigeria.
"Many people are sympathetic to the Biafran actualization cause because of the treatment meted to the entire Biafran land comprising the former Eastern Region.
"Many groups are also rising up to speak against the treatment meted to the IPOB leader and Director of Radio Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu who at present is being incarcerated in Kuje prison, and they can use any style to make their demand felt by the Federal Government but no IPOB member has a hand in it," Powerful was quoted to have said.
The MASSOB leader, Uchenna Madu, who also denied his group's involvement in the alleged hijacking of any merchant ship or any threat to blow up the alleged ship, stated that they are non violent and have no weapon to hold any ship hostage, let alone seizing and threatening to blow it with its passengers.
According to him: "I am aware that a militant group sometime gave the Federal Government twenty one-day ultimatum to release Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, failing which they threatened that they will do what will surprise the Nigerian government. May be it is the group, I do not even remember their name but I heard or read about that threat.
"You know that a lot of groups are springing up from the old Eastern Region to agitate for the actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra and as far as they are fighting for Biafra, we cannot disown them, but they have their own style which I think the Federal Government of Nigeria understands easily. If you are not violent, they will not understand and they will ignore you. So, we support the group if that is what they have actually done.
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"We in MASSOB are not involved in violence, that is why they do not take us serious. They believe we are illiterate job seekers that are frustrated in life and decided to demand for Biafra. They think that our own is to demonstrate peacefully and they will shoot and kill us and go into jubilation that they have dealt with us, but now, they have seen their match. We support the people if they have actually done that."
Madu added however, that, "any method applied by any Biafra agitating group to ensure that the Federal Government of Nigeria respects its law and court orders is approved by MASSOB, but we in MASSOB have chosen the path of non-violence and we will maintain it until Biafra is achieved."
In spite of these denials, the Nigerian army has said it will take strict measures against the pro-Biafran Militants threatening the peace with the southsouth and southeast region of the country.
According to the Defence Headquarters, the pro-Biafran militants who allegedly hijacked a merchant vessel off the coast of Nigeria on Friday, January 29, would be made to face the wrath which is meted-out to criminal and saboteurs.
Defence sources, who claimed knowledge of the hijacking on Tuesday, February 2, explained that the operatives of the Nigerian Navy were on the trail of the captured vessel and the hijackers.
Source: Legit.ng
