Following this, no fewer than five pro Biafra groups yesterday commended Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State for his assurance that the South East governors would rebuild the palace of the monarch which was damaged by the Nigerian Army during an attack on the fugitive IPOB leader some months ago.
In a statement issued in Abakaliki and signed by Comrade Emeka Ibekwe for Biafra Independence Organization; Comrade Philip Umenna for Igbo Revolutionary Movement; Comrade Sunday James Achu for Eastern Peoples Renewal; Rev Kingsley Olisa for Biafra Clergy Network; and Comrade Victor Akpanaka for Biafra Security Network, the groups further appealed for close relationship among Ndigbo and other ethnic nationalities in Igbo land. They said: “The leadership of five pro Biafra groups met yesterday and resolved to work and promote a conscious brotherhood and synergy among all pro Biafra agitators.” The groups commended the Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu for his assurance that the southeast governors will rebuild the palace of the father of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu which was damaged by the Nigerian Army. They also appealed for close relationship among Ndigbo and other ethnic nationalities in Biafra land. “We agreed to work together as one family in unison with other pro Biafra groups that could not attend our meeting. “Pro-Biafra groups should intensify efforts in grassroot sensitisation and mobilisations for greater home awareness of Biafra referendum that will determine the acceptability of Biafra by the people of Biafra. “Pro-Biafra groups should explore every necessary means, including political, economical and religious means for effective actualisation and restoration of sovereign state of Biafra. We shall be involved in the political determinations of governance of our region. We shall be stakeholders in electing, deciding and establishing a Biafra- oriented political force that will not be a stooge in national assembly and state governments.”
Meantime, a different coalition of pro-Biafra groups has rejected the declaration, purportedly made by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu in Jerusalem, Israel, earlier this week. The coalition which included the Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, among other Biafra agitating groups said that whereas they were happy to hear that Kanu was still alive, they however took exception to issues raised by the IPOB leader in his purported speech, particularly on his re-declaration of Biafra Republic. Rising from a meeting in Enugu yesterday, the coalition leaders which included Uchenna Madu of MASSOB; Okey Orji of Eastern Peoples Congress; Innocent Amadi of Billie Human Rights Initiative; Eberechukwu Anigbogu of Movement of Biafrans In Nigeria, among others urged Ndigbo to disregard Kanu and keep calm. In their common statement after the meeting, the coalition said it has fully analysed Kanu’s address to the world and wish to react that the purported declaration of the Republic of Biafra by Nnamdi Kanu was a gross abuse of history. “We cannot understand how the Republic of Biafra that was declared in 1967 by Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu after due consultations and approval by the elders and leaders of Biafra land can be declared again. “We make bold to say that Biafra had existed as an independent nation for three years. It is important to remind the entire world that the Nigeria- Biafra civil war (1967 — 1970) ended on the note of ‘no victor, no vanquished.’ “Nnamdi Kanu has neither the authority of Ndigbo nor the capacity to declare a republic for the Igbo nation. His address is an over statement. “The coalition insists that Biafra is the property of the entire Biafra people which no single person, no matter how highly placed, has the right to unilaterally decide her faith.” It also recalled that in 2012, the Supreme Council of Elders of the Indigenous People of Biafra mandated BILIE Human Rights Initiatives, an international human rights oganisation to sue the Federal Government of Nigeria on behalf of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra.
Source: Vanguard
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