7 agitators remanded In Delta
As MASSOB demands release of 35 detained members
BIM accuses police of killing 3

By Vincent Ujumadu,  Festus Ahon, Chimaobi Nwaiwu  & Emma Una

CALABAR—TWO weeks after the commemoration of   Biafra Anniversary Day by members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, ten members of the group were, Monday, arrested in Cross River State.

Okon Archibong, the spokesman of MASSOB in the state, told Vanguard that the  State Coordinator of the group,  Samuel Okah, along with nine others whose names he gave as Shedrack Chinelo, Chief Joseph Ekperebi, Michael Adah, James Ekeme, Adah Johnson,   were  arrested in Ikom and Ogoja, Monday night, and detained at the Ikom police station.

“We have not had any other activity outside  the May 30 commemoration of Biafra Anniversary Day, but last night, Police from Ikom Division went to the home of our State Coordinator, Samuel Okah and nine other persons and arrested them.”

Archibong said the police did not give any specific reason for their arrest and that they were taken to the Ikom Police station and detained there.

“I have gone to see them at the Ikom police station this morning and they are in the cell and I asked what offence they committed because during our anniversary march, we did not engage in any confrontation with anybody or group, not even with the police.”

John Eluu, the Police Public Relations Officer for Cross River State Police Command said he was not to be briefed on the matter..

Raising alarm

Meantime, the Biafra Independent Movement,BIM, has raised the alarm that the Ikom Division of the Nigerian Police, Cross River State might have  killed three BIM members  from Obubra Senatorial District, Chief Samuel Okah and two others, and challenged   them to release them if they had not killed them.

In statement issued in Onitsha by Biafra Director of Information, Mazi Chris Mocha, BIM, said Okah, and the two others had on Monday gone to honour the police invitation in the morning of the fateful day, but had not returned till evening before  two of their members went to Ikom Police Station to make enquiry over his whereabout.

“When the duo arrived there for the enquiry, the DPO ordered that they also be detained over separatist agitations in the zone, and since then, the whereabouts of the BIM members are still unknown,” he said.

Those arrested according to the statement, include, Chief Rex Ekperebi, Regional Admin from Ikom Council area and Pastor Shedrach Chinwendu, Zonal Director for Finance.

“They were said to have been transferred from Ikom to State Headquarters Calabar, Cross River State capital where they were detained and kept incommunicado from their relations and friends, informing our belief that they have been killed,” he said.

Demanding release of 35 detained members

Also yesterday, the  Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB,  called on Governors Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Willie Obiano of Anambra State to free 35 members of pro- Biafra agitators being detained in various prisons in the South East geo-political zone.

In a statement in Awka, MASSOB national secretary, Mr. Ugwuoke Ibem Ugwuoke said 22 MASSOB members have been languishing in Awka and Onitsha prisons since April 2007, while 13 members of the Biafra Zionist Movement, BZM, were being detained in Enugu Prisons since the last two years over what he described as ‘frivolous charges of treasonable felony.’

One of those being detained is a cripple, while two of them were females.

He said: ‘The detained MASSOB members at Awka prison are Sebastian Amadi, Ikechukwu Chikwem, Peter Igbokwe, Uchenna Nicholas, Uche Idika, Casmir Odokara, Eni Kalu, Chidiebere Ezekwem, Chima Asoh (cripple), Ojimba Anyanwu,   Ndubuisi Okam, Emmanuel Orji, Micheal Okezie, Ikechukwu Aghari, Mmaduabuchi Asika, Chinwike Irondi and Chukwuma Kalu.

“The MASSOB members detained at Onitsha Prisons are Innocent Orji, Chukwuebuka Ikenwa, Amah Onu, Okwudiri Basil (female) and Onyekachi Orji (female), while the leader of BZM, Mr. Benjamin Onwuka and 12 others were being detained at Owerri Prisons.

7 agitators remanded In Delta

In Asaba, at least seven persons suspected to be members of  Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, were, yesterday, remanded in prison by a magistrate court, sitting in Asaba for their alleged involvement in the murder of three police officers during the violent pro-Biafra agitations in Asaba on May 30, 2016.

The three police officers are: ASP Genesis Akagha, Sgt. Itoro Thompson and and Cpl. Biosu Onyeka of the Delta State Police Command.

Other charges leveled against the accused persons include cultism, conspiracy, membership of unlawful society and illegal possession of arms.