Biafra Day: Militants demand release of agitators’ corpses

NIGER Delta militants have asked the Federal Gov­ernment to immediately re­lease corpses of Biafra sup­porters allegedly killed on Monday or risk more attacks from them beginning on Fri­day, June 3.

The militants also pledged a revenge against security agents over what they de­scribed as “unprovoked massacre of peace-loving Biafra people” in Onitsha, Anambra State.

In an ultimatum issued yesterday, through their on­line platform, the militants said the decision was taken after an emergency meeting of leaders of the various mili­tant groups in the region.

Representatives of Niger Delta People’s Democratic Front ( NDPDF) a nd C on­cerned Militant Leaders (CML), Precious Iyoyo (Gen­eral Playboy) and General Ben respectively, said the brutality of security agents against the citizens was dis­heartening.

The Niger Delta militants claimed they witnessed how members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sov­ereign State of Biafra (MAS­SOB), Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Biafra Independent Movement (BIM) were killed in unpro­voked circumstances.

“So many Niger Delta militants witnessed what happened in Onitsha.

“We are too pained to keep quiet. If the Federal Government fails to release them by Friday, June 3, 2016, they will hear from us from Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Edo states,” General Playboy said.

Similarly, General Ben said actions of soldiers and policemen last Monday were clear declaration of war on innocent and help­less Nigerians.

“It is now war between the militants and security men. Since innocent and helpless citizens, especially from South-South and South East, have been marked out for extinction, we will de­fend our people. We will go after security men in an un­precedented manner both in sea and on land. Federal Government should expect more attacks from us.

“We’ll tell the Federal Government that the Niger Delta region is our terrain and no amount of military troops and their armoury will dampen our spirit.

“The Federal Govern­ment should know that the more attacks on Biafra, the more aggressive we become. This is war that involves all of us,” he said.

Scores of Biafra agita­tors were allegedly killed on Monday, in some states, during the celebration of the 49th anniversary of Bi­afra proclamation by the late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu.

Meanwhile, Edo State Gov­ernor, Adams Oshiomhole, said no part of the country can do without each other, declaring that Nigeria’s ex­istence as a united country remains non-negotiable.

This is even as he called on political elites to come together and see how the bombing of oil installa­tions in the Niger Delta by militants under the aegis of Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), would end, warn­ing that the time of ethnic champions are over saying “nobody will benefit from blowing up pipelines.”

He also stressed the need to end the militancy and cre­ate a peaceful environment for investors to come in.

The governor, who spoke to State House correspon­dents at the Presidential Vil­la shortly after he met with President Muhammadu Buhari, applauded the presi­dent’s response to stop the sabotage on oil installations, saying the state should not submit to blackmail.

The NDA has for the past month blown up crude oil facilities of major oil explo­ration firms in the region, crippling oil exports while the military has responded with massive deployment of arsenal in operations to fish out the culprits.

Oshiomhole argued that the destruction of the oil infrastructure by any group would not be of benefit to anybody but cause more pol­lution and hardship on the people of the region.

Explaining that the media was not the right channel to send out security solutions, he said the president acted well so far and had succeed­ed in ‘sending the message out’.

“When you are dealing with security issues the options are not best dis­cussed in the media. What I can say is that this presi­dent deserves the support of everyone and there is no part of Nigeria that can be better off without the other. The sooner we ac­cept this reality, the better it is for all of us. The days of ethnic champions and imaginary divides will not help anyone. I believe that the president has shown leadership, he has shown determination to keep the country going and for once we are enjoying respect in world capitals, in different continents.

“Part of the challenge we are facing today is that quite a number of our young people are out of job, even in our budget, the president on his own without prompting, decided to devote as much as half a trillion naira to social investments that is targeted at the poorest among us.

“We don’t need to be secu­rity experts to accept the uni­versal truth that wherever there is insecurity there will be no investment because no investor will go to where is unsafe. And where there is no investment, poverty will be endemic because there will be no job for our people.

“I appeal to all of us in the South-South, we need to wake up, it is for our own self interest that we make the region the most investor-friendly that even challenges that we face, the assets be­ing destroyed is not just na­tional assets, it is our own assets. It is what makes the South-South the hub of the Nigerian economy and when we nutralise that through whatever pretenses, there is something Abiola said which I think is apt in this case, that is if a tree falls in the forest chances are it can only kill somebody in that forest not somebody at home.

“So, if somebody for whatever reasons decide to destroy pipelines and thereby compounding the problem of pollution, the cost of cleaning up that area, making it attractive either for fishing, farming or other business is a huge cost. Cost not just in naira and kobo, cost in terms of time and in terms of human lives.”