SAN FRANCISCO, January 18, (THEWILL) – The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has noted that for the pro-Biafra struggle to have continued after former President Olusegun Obasanjo killed over 1000 of its members at Umulolo, Okigwe, in Imo State in 2003, the former president should have realized that “Biafra is not dead and will never die”.
The group spoke on Monday in response to a statement credited to Obasanjo last week where he dismissed the recent agitation for the resurrection of the Biafra secessionist agenda as a hopeless and futile exercise.
Obasanjo, who was presenting a paper entitled: “Resurgent Biafra Agitation: Born in Error, Ignorance and Frustration,” at a public discussion on Biafra, organised by Nextier Advisory in Abuja, had called Biafra a dead issue which no Nigerian, especially the people of the South-East, should take serious.
His words, “No right-thinking person who has experienced the horror of war will ever agitate for more war.
“Nigeria cannot afford to go from Boko Haram insurgency to any other insurgency under any guise.
“And on no account should we wittingly or unwittingly allow this to happen again.”
But reacting to Obasanjo’s comments through a statement issued in Enugu by its Director of Information, Comrade Samuel Edeson, MASSOB stressed that Biafra was not dead, and would never die, alleging that the ex-president had tried to destroy the pro-Biafra group in the past, during his time as the country’s president.
According to the group, several MASSOB members lost their lives when Obasanjo ordered a clampdown on the group, then led by Ralph Uwazuruike, who was eventually incarcerated, and released after a long period in prison custody.
Edeson disclosed that the pro-Biafra group would drag Obasanjo to the International Criminal Court for the alleged killings.
The statement reads, “MASSOB wishes to reply Obasanjo that Biafra is not dead and will never die.
“Obasanjo should have known that after killing over 1000 MASSOB members at Umulolo, Okigwe, in Imo State on March 29, 2003, which he masterminded through Achike Udenwa, then governor of Imo State.
“The killing of MASSOB members in Onitsha, Anambra State in 2006/2007, and detention of MASSOB members in various prisons in Nigeria has not stopped our agitation.”
The MASSOB spokesman alleged that Obasanjo attempted to bribe MASSOB leaders with ‘bag of money’ to forget the struggle for the resurrection of Biafra.
He said the MASSOB leaders, at an alleged meeting with Obasanjo in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, rejected the said bribe, which he said was cash in Ghana-must-go bag.
“In 2006 while Uwazuruike was in Keffi prison, Obasanjo invited us to Aso Rock where he promised us millions of naira and to send us out of the country.
“Ghana-must-go bag of money just for us to forget Uwazuruike to die in prison.
“But we rejected the offer,” the MASSOB mouthpiece noted.
Obasanjo had also in his lecture expressed sadness that the Biafra agitation has also become an industry for those looking for money by hook or by crook, particularly from sympathisers abroad. This was as he described the commercialisation and exploitation of the Biafra agitation as obscene and criminal.
But Edeson reacted to this by noting that Uwazuruike, the former leader of MASSOB, was expelled from the group for “commercialising” the struggle, asserting that the former president does not understand ‘Biafra’.
He said, “Yes it is true that Uwazuruike has commercialised the struggle and that is why we expelled him from MASSOB.
“Obasanjo is ignorant of Biafra,” said Edeson.
