Biafran advocate Chief Uwazurike and 280 of his associates spent the Sallah holidays in prison having been detained on their way to the venue of an award ceremony for their champion, Dim Emeka Ojukwu. Their bail application comes up for consideration today. A positive response from the court could lessen the palpable tension in the Southeast.

BY TONY EDIKE

THE arrest and subsequent detention of Chief Ralph Uwazurike and 280 members of his Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB has again heightened tension in the entire South Eastern States. They were arrested on their way to an award giving ceremony where a number of prominent Ibos were to be honoured.

The Igbo Youth Movement, IYM led by Evangelist Eliot Ukoh had marked its 12th anniversary at the Hotel Presidential Enugu that Wednesday and part of activities lined up for the celebration was the conferment of awards on eminent Igbo leaders who had contributed immensely to the progress of the Igbo nation.

Among those honoured were the ailing former Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu,  who received the award of “Igbo Icon of all times”.  His wife, Bianca, who returned from London for the ceremony, received the award on behalf of the Ikemba Nnewi, who is recuperating a London hospital.

Others honoured were the founder of MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazulike who bagged Igbo Warrior for Selfless Sacrifice award; former Governor of Abia State and National Chairman of All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu , (Igbo Light); National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, (Igbo Hero for steadfastly extending Igbo political frontier) and former President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Igwe Justice Eze Ozobu, Onye Ndu Ndigbo (Igbo leader).

Security operatives

But before the event could commence inside the Federation Hall of the Hotel Presidential, reports filtered in that a large number of MASSOB members coming into Enugu from different parts of Igbo land to witness the crowning of their two leaders (Ojukwu and Uwazurike) were halted at different points by security operatives. They were categorically told by the security operatives that there was an instruction from the highest quarters that members of the movement should not be allowed into the Coal City.  Some of them returned to their base while others insisted on proceeding to the venue.

Sensing their determination to disobey the security order, several commuter buses that conveyed them to Enugu were impounded at different points and the occupants, who were thoroughly searched were taken to different Police Divisions within Enugu metropolis. By Wednesday evening, all the arrested MASSOB members had been brought down to Enugu Police Headquarters for interrogation.

About 50 others were also arrested from the Hotel Presidential venue of the ceremony by soldiers who operated in five Hilux patrol vans. Some soldiers and policemen allegedly jumped through the fence into the expansive GRA, Enugu compound  of Ojukwu in search of the MASSOB members but sources said none of them was in sight.

The police investigators were said to have queried why they adorned a blue uniform with Biafran badges containing the rising sun and flags of the defunct Biafran republic. They were also quizzed as to where they kept their weapons among others to which the MASSOB members denied having any, insisting that their struggle had been non-violent.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu later confirmed the arrest in a telephone chat saying they were apprehended based on intelligence report that they were coming into Enugu to cause havoc.

Despite the arrest and the attempt by security operatives to prevent the pro-Biafran group from attending the event, the Federation Hall of Hotel Presidential was filled to capacity by participants including MASSOB supporters who had found their way to the venue before the security raid.

Speaking at the occasion, Mrs. Ojukwu lamented the continued neglect of the Biafran war veterans by successive administrations in the country, saying having sacrificed their lives for the unity of the country, they deserved to be honoured and duly rehabilitated. She told the audience that Ojukwu had been looking forward to the governments of the South East and indeed the federal government to come up with a clear rehabilitation programme for the Biafran war veterans as a way of bettering their welfare, stressing that the settlement of the veterans remained a sacrifice which any individual could make.

She also recalled with concern the murder of six Igbos by security men in Abuja in the famous “APO 6 killing” for which no justice had been done by way of bringing the perpetrators to book, demanding that those behind the murder must be tried.

Ensuring justice

According to her, it would be wrong to sweep the matter under the carpet, explaining that Ojukwu’s desire to form the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA was to ensure justice for Igbos in Nigeria.

Also speaking, the MASSOB leader, Chief Uwazulike said the desire by Igbos to produce the president of Nigeria would remain a mirage urging his kinsmen to forget about Igbo president in 2015, as according to him, nobody would give it to them as they had no clear agenda to pursue the cause.  He said that the only way the Igbo can grab the presidential slot was to support the MASSOB’s agitation, which, he said, was legitimate.

Uwazurike, who was visibly weighed down by the arrest of his men, said the youths should have singled out only Ojukwu for the honour.  He regretted that Ojukwu had not been immortalized anywhere in the East of the Niger as most of his peers elsewhere in the country, who had projects named after them to immortalize them. Yet, he pointed out that the Igbos had followed Ojukwu like the Yorubas had followed Awolowo but said the Yorubas had always adored their leader, urging the Igbos to do the same for Ojukwu.

He asked the police to release all the arrested persons immediately insisting that they committed no offence.

The National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, who spoke in the same vein, called on the Enugu State police command to release the MASSOB members, warning that the continued act of provocation against Ndigbo, if not stopped, could lead to another major crisis in the country.

Umeh, who broke down in tears lamented that the Igbos were still being marginalized in the Nigerian project. He, therefore, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to make haste to ensure that the Igbos got one additional state and 40 more local government councils to bring the South East zone at par with others zones in the country.

Umeh also dismissed the ongoing jostling by the Igbos to clinch the nation’s presidency by 2015 as mere “hallucination”, insisting that until the gross injustice against the people of the South-east, in terms of inequality in number of states and local governments were addressed, no Igbo man would rule the country anytime soon.

Following the event, Uwazurike, Umeh and some Igbo leaders left the Hotel Presidential for the Police Headquarters to see the Commissioner of Police and seek the release of the detainees but the police decided to also detain Uwazurike, saying he had questions to answer.

Driving on the highways

All the detainees were quickly rushed to the Magistrate Court, Enugu Thursday morning for arraignment even when some eminent Igbos had reached out to the police authorities to demand their release on the basis that they committed no offence against the laws of the land.  They argued that since the MASSOB members were only driving on the highways and were picked up even before their arrival at the event, they ought to be freed.  All the pleas fell on deaf ears as the police went ahead to prefer charges against them.

On arrival at the Magistrate Court premises which is about 50 metres away from the Police Headquarters, several police and army officers cordoned off the entire premises allowing only lawyers and journalists into the premises.  Some litigants who attempted to gain entry to the court were turned back.

Uwazurike and 280 members of the organization were lined up in front of the car park of one of the court buildings as none of the court rooms could contain the large number of accused persons. Even before Magistrate Dennis Ekoh could take his seat, four court clerks were busy filling remand forms in the presence of the accused persons who stood under the hot sun throughout the proceeding.

This revealed the plan of the police to ensure that the accused persons did not regain their freedom instantaneously. From the argument of the Police Prosecutors, it was clear that Uwazurike and his boys would once again be the guest of the Enugu Prison.

A four-count charge was brought against them including an alleged plot of conspiring to overthrow Enugu State Governor, Sullivan Chime and other governors of the South Eastern states through unlawful means in order to enthrone Biafra. They were also alleged to have committed treasonable felony and conducts likely to cause a breach of public peace by flying the flag and wearing Biafran uniforms contrary to Section 156 of the Criminal Code cap C.38 Laws.

After the charges were read, the accused persons were not allowed to take plea as the presiding magistrate declined jurisdiction to handle the case.  He also rejected oral applications by counsels to the accused persons to grant them bail saying that they were at liberty to canvass same at the state high court after the matter had been assigned to the appropriate court by the State Attorney General.

When the court declined jurisdiction and ordered that the accused persons be remanded in prisons custody  Umeh, the APGA National Chairman who had escorted the accused persons from the Police Headquarters to the court and stayed throughout the proceeding, was visibly angry as he had waited but vainly to sign bail for them.

Umeh told newsmen that the remand of the accused persons was “unfortunate, frivolous and laughable”, saying that he was shocked to see the police coming with charges that bothered on treasonable felony and conspiracy to sack elected governors of the South East zone by people who were neither armed nor violent.

Among those remanded were 10 elderly men with grey hair, some women with two young boys said to be below 14. Most of the accused persons complained that the police and soldiers that arrested them on Wednesday collected their money, mobile phones and other valuables found on them in addition to severe torture, calling on the Inspector General of Police to ensure that all the removed items were returned to them.