Three Feared Dead as Security Agents Quell Biafra Protest in Aba
No fewer than three persons were feared dead monday in Aba when security agents confronted members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) who were protesting against the continued detention of their leader, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.
Eyewitnesses said that the casualties were recorded when soldiers opened fire on the protesters along Milverton Road and St Michaels’s Road in the commercial city in Abia State.
When the smoke cleared, two lifeless bodies lay on Milverton while one was found at St Michael’s, the eyewitnesses said.
Though the identities of the three victims were not immediately available, it was gathered that an apprentice, Chidozie Okafor, was among those felled by bullets.
Unlike the soldiers, the police were said to have used teargas in their efforts to disperse the protesters.
The Abia State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Udeviotu Onyeke, said he was not aware of any casualty recorded during the protest, stating that a report on the deaths was yet to reach him.
However he confirmed that the pro-Biafra agitators staged their usual protest, adding that they had trooped out in large numbers and attempted to block the ever-busy Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, but a combined team of police and soldiers dispersed them.
The Abia police spokesman added that the agents “decided to use teargas to disperse” the protesters when they later regrouped and “started making bonfires on some roads inside Aba”.
He vowed that the police would no longer stand by and watch pro-Biafra protesters disrupt peace in the state, adding: “It’s either they stop or we stop them.”
Onyeke stated that 26 members of IPOB including three women were arrested by the security agents during the operation to quell the protest march.
“IPOB members and other Biafra agitators should remain calm. The agitation has gone beyond the stage of violence. The ranks of those involved in the agitation suggest that they are not gainfully employed. They are miscreants,” he said.
Speaking on the protest in Aba, the state government expressed regrets that the protesters had defied the ban on public protests and demonstrations which have been in force in the last two weeks.
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Bonnie Iwuoha, who addressed journalists on the incident at Aba, said that miscreants were instigated by the opposition to disturb the peace in Aba forcing schools and markets to close.
The chief press secretary to the governor, Mr. Godwin Adindu, also debunked reports in the social media that the state government unleashed troops on the pro-Biafra protesters, describing it as blatant lies.
He said that the protest was “ostensibly inspired by the opposition in Abia State”, noting that “Governor Okezie Ikpeazu does not have the powers to order or mobilise the Armed Forces to shoot at any group. The army takes its orders directly from the military high command and the federal government”.
“We want to state that since the regime of the mass protests by IPOB/MASSOB, the governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has continued to sue for peace and has personally commended both the IPOB leaders and the security agencies on their mutuality of understanding in handling the protest which has ensured that the street matches never resulted in any open violence,” he said.
According to him, the governor has lived out this responsibility both in his personal disposition and in his public conduct as the governor of the state.
“His message to the youths has always been that they conduct themselves within the ambit of the law and in a manner that would not cause a breach of public peace.
“While the governor regrets any confrontation between the IPOB members and security agencies which may have resulted in violence today, he is also using the medium to appeal to the good people of the state and particularly the youths of Aba to give peace a chance and desist from actions that will lead to further violence,” the CPS stated.
On its part, IPOB decried the unprovoked attack on its members by security agents, saying it amounted to “genocide”.
The spokesman of IPOB, Mr. Emma Powerful, in his reaction to the bloody incident at Aba, vowed that “no amount of attack, intimidation or harassment could stop the struggle for Biafran autonomy”.
He said: “Let them continue killing us but the truth is that they cannot stop Biafra. Biafra has come to stay. They (security agents) want to push us to become violent but we will not get violent. We must actualise Biafra through peaceful means. Our fathers have paid with their blood during the civil war. We will not fight any war again.
“We want the international community to see our plights in the hands of Nigeria security operatives and hold them accountable for whatever happens to us. If they like let them build more prisons to put us there, but we will not give up until we get Biafra.”
Meanwhile, the renewed battle over the legal representation of the detained leader of IPOB yesterday resurfaced at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Two lawyers – Mr. Gabriel Egbule and Mr. Vincent Obetta – engaged by Kanu’s wife and father respectively had clashed previously at an Abuja Chief Magistrate’s Court over the representation of the IPOB leader.
But many who thought that the issue had been resolved were disappointed when it reared its head again at the Federal High Court where Egbule appeared to represent Kanu only to discover that the case was not scheduled for hearing yesterday.
After people who came to court for the hearing on the case, which had been reassigned to Justice John Tsoho, left disappointed at the “no show”.
When contacted, Obetta informed THISDAY that he was not aware that the case was slated for hearing yesterday.
“I am not aware of any case or hearing being slated for today,” he said.
It was gathered that Egbule, who at the time of Kanu's arraignment at the Magistrate’s Court, claimed that he had the instructions of his wife to represent him, Obetta, an Enugu-based legal practitioner, on the other hand, claimed that he had received instructions from his father to defend him.
This created an air of uncertainty over the power play between the two legal practitioners, with family members and Biafra agitators working to resolve the issue.
“What you are seeing now is similar to what happened during the trial of the late Chief MKO Abiola, when the late Chief FRA Williams and another legal team battled to represent him.
“What is playing out is an internal family matter, which I think the lawyers should try to insulate themselves from,” a source told THISDAY.
The federal government had filed a six-count charge against Kanu, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi for treasonable felony.
When the matter came up for arraignment, Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court withdrew from the trial and returned the case to the Chief Judge of the court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, for reassignment to another judge.
This followed the objection by Kanu, who spoke from the dock where he stood alongside two co-defendants, saying that he lacked confidence in the judge.
While Kanu was accused of, among other offences, management of an unlawful society (IPOB), Madubugwu and Nwawuisi were accused of assisting in the management of the said unlawful group.
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