*Demands release of detained MASSOB members

BY TONY EDIKE

ENUGU – Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday, condemned Friday’s bombing of the United Nations House in Abuja by Boko Haram, saying the Federal Government should do everything possible to stop the senseless attacks capable of destabilising the polity.

The organisation also demanded the immediate release of the leader of Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazurike and 280 members of the organization remanded in Enugu Prisons last week since there was no clear evidence that they committed any criminal offence.

Also yesterday, former President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Igwe Justice Eze Ozobu led prominent Igbo leaders to visit the incarcerated MASSOB members at the Enugu Prisons, demanding their immediate release.

Those who accompanied Ozobu on the visit were a former National Publicity Secretary of Ohaneze, Chief G.B.K. Okpoko and National Leader of Igbo Youth Movement, IYM, Elliot Uko.

Meantime,  a new organization, Movement for Igbo Liberation in Nigeria,MILIN, weekend, declared its intention to carry out attacks on Federal Government installations in the South-East to register their disdain on the state of Igbo in the country.

A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Prince Ralph Ndigwe, noted that “such a senseless act directed at a peaceful international organisation and all the previous similar attacks in this country by Boko Haram could destabilise  Nigeria.

Justice Ozobu decried the arrest and imprisonment of Uwazurike and his members, saying he was at the prison to ask the powers-that-be, the offence the MASSOB members committed that warranted their incarceration. He said it was condemnable for the authorities to continue to hound Igbo at every given opportunity.