The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has appealed to the United Nations (UN) to arrange and conduct a referendum to ascertain the willingness or otherwise of the people to be part of an independent Biafra.
According to Vanguard, the Owerri zonal leader of the MASSOB and a member of the organisation’s elder’s council, Chief Canice Anujuru and Chief Okechukwu Nwogu respectively, made the appeal during a news conference in Owerri to mark the 17th anniversary of the birth of MASSOB.
Anujuru said conducting a referendum for the independence of Biafra was long overdue, adding that Biafrans are earnestly awaiting the conduct of the exercise.
He recalled that the UN granted MASSOB observer status since 2000, and pointed out that since then, MASSOB has been prosecuting its campaign for the independence of Biafra in a non-violent manner.
He accused the Nigerian government and its security agencies of mindlessly killing, detaining and prosecuting several pro-Biafra agitators over the years despite the group’s non-violent posture.
In another development, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has reacted to President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech urging Nigerians to remain together.
Uwazuruike in a statement signed by BIM’s director of information, Mazi Chris Mocha, on Sunday in Onitsha disagreed with the president saying, no amount of preaching on “One Nigeria” can save the country from going the way of the Soviet Union.
He blamed Britain for the problems facing Nigeria adding that Lord Luggard when he discovered that northerners were indolent and that the resources being generated from the Niger Delta of Southern Nigeria could be used to administer the two protectorates (North and South) joined the two different entities together without seeking the consent of the people concerned.
Uwazuruike further revealed that after the killing of Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi, the north had wanted to pull out of one Nigeria after Yakubu Gowon said that there was no basis for one Nigeria.
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