The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has replied former president Olusegun Obasanjo, over his comment on Biafra struggle at the weekend.

The Punch reports that the group’s Director of Information, Comrade Samuel Edeson, in a statement issued in Enugu, on Monday, January 18, said “Biafra is not dead and will never die.”

Obasanjo, on January 15, while 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, said “Biafra is a dead issue”

He was reported to have condemned the renewed agitation for the resurrection of the Biafra secessionist agenda, describing it as a “hopeless and futile exercise.”  The former leader advised the South-East people not to take the Biafra agitation seriously, saying: “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.”

Reacting to the former president stance on the Biafra issue, Comrade Edeson, stated that Obasanjo had tried to destroy the Biafra group in the past, during his administration as Nigeria’s president, but the struggle for the actualization of Biafra survived, despite persecution masterminded by him.

The spokesman further hinted that Obasanjo, in March 29, 2003 killed about 1000 MASSOB members at Umulolo, Okigwe, in Imo state. He said several members were killed following Obasanjo’s order to clampdown on MASSOB, which was then under the leadership of Ralph Uwazuruike. He said Uwazuruike was arrested and incarcerated for a long period before he was later released.

Comrade Edeson said the pro-Biafra group would drag Obasanjo to the International Criminal Court for the killings.

“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,” Edeson said.

He also alleged that Obasanjo attempted to bribe MASSOB leaders with “bag of money” stashed in a “Ghana-must-go bag” to forget the struggle for the resurrection of Biafra, during a meeting with them at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, but was turned down.

“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,” he said.

The former president had expressed sadness that the Biafra agitation has also become an avenue for people looking for money by hook or by crook, especially from sympathisers abroad. He described the commercialization and exploitation of the Biafra agitation as “obscene and criminal.”

Edeson insisted that the former MASSOB leader, Uwazuruike, was expelled from the group for “commercialising” the struggle.

Edeson, who accused Obasanjo of genocide and corruption, said he does not understand “Biafra.”

“Yes it is true that Uwazuruike has commercialised the struggle and that is why we expelled him from MASSOB. Obasanjo is ignorant of Biafra,” he said.

Most Rev Dr Emmanuel Chukwuma, on Sunday, January 17 berated former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, for his outburst on the sensitive issue of Biafra MASSOB and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), have threatened to resume protests in cities and towns across the South-East and South-South geo-political zones in response to the continued detention of it leader and director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

Meanwhile, Enugu state government has issued stern warning to residents of the state against planned move by IPOB and MASSOB to protect on January 18, even as security operatives in the South-East have been put on a red alert around sensitive government facilities..

Source: Naij