The leadership of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Biafra Independence Movement (BIM) have given the police in Abia State four days to produce their members who allegedly went missing after police raided their Umuahia Zonal Office on May 30, 2016.

MASSOB/BIM claim that policemen from the Central Police Station, Umuahia, swooped on the Asaba Street headquarters of Abia Central Zone of the organisation while their members were celebrating the 49th anniversary of the declaration of Biafra, shooting and firing tear gas at the members and as well, effecting arrests.

The MASSOB/BIM Zonal Director of Information, Mr Anselem Ogbonna, in a statement issued in Umuahia and made available to News Express, insisted that after the raid, the police nabbed 10 of its members and took them away.

“Personnel of the Nigeria Police from Abia State Command, led by the Divisional Police Officer, Central Police Station, Umuahia, swooped on us, shooting guns and firing tear gas. This caused panic and led to sustaining of varying degrees of injuries by many of my members, including a pregnant woman,” Ogbonna claimed.

“They arrested nine of my members on the spot, in addition to our video cameraman initially arrested at Isi-gate in Warri Street, Umuahia. This brought to 10, the number of arrested MASSOB/BIM members,” he added.

The police through its Public Relations Officer, Mr Onyeke Udeviotu, had acknowledged arresting only four MASSOB/BIM members who were arraigned in court on June 1, 2016.

However, Ogbonna disputed the claim, maintaining that the police took away 10 of their members and also confiscated their video camera valued at N120,000. Ogbonna is distraught that efforts to locate the alleged missing MASSOB members have come to naught.

“Up till now, the remaining six members are nowhere to be found. A report reaching us from one Mr Peter Onyechehile, says that all efforts he has made in searching for his younger brother, Mr Chinedum Onyechehile, have not yielded any positive result as he has not succeeded in getting him. It is equally on record that all the six missing members are members of the Umuahia North region in Abia Central,” Ogbonna stated.

“MASSOB/BIM, Abia Central Zone, is, therefore, giving the Abia State Police Command four days from the date of this publication to release her members from where they kept them, including the digital video camera belonging to the Directorate of Information MASSOB,” Ogbonna added.

He threatened that the police would experience “something worse than hell” if the pregnant woman that suffered injuries during the May 30, 2016 raid dies as she was still lying critically ill in the hospital. He advised the police to pray “hard” for the woman’s recovery.

The Information Director disclosed that their experience has shown that after such raids, the police dumps their members in prison without arraigning them in court, neither do they include their names on the notice board which shows those being held in police custody.

Giving an example, he alleged that on September 12, 2015, the immediate past Commissioner of Police in Abia, Joshak Habila, led a team of armed policemen to raid their headquarters. During the operation, he alleged that their office was damaged while the police carted away valuable properties of the zone, including a radio message, laptop and several official documents.

“They later arrested and carried away 12 of our members. They arraigned only six of them before a Magistrate Court two days later and dumped the remaining six men outside the Police custody. It was after two weeks when their whereabouts was unknown that I raised the alarm and that was when Habila Joshak released them from where he had kept them,” Ogbonna revealed.

He further alleged that the Abia Police Command had, sometime last year, “abducted” one of the security officers of the zone, Miss Uloaku Ezekiel, and dumped her in Okigwe Prisons without charging her before any court, adding that it took about four months to discover that she was rotting away at Okigwe Prisons “for being a member of Biafra security.”

Ogbonna said it is the act of dumping their members outside police facilities that facilitates the extra-judicial killing of MASSOB/BIM members.

He blamed politicians from the South East geo-political zone for the “evils” that were befalling the Biafra freedom fighters because of their desire to “remain under one Nigeria.”

He said that the several clampdowns on MASSOB/BIM were aimed at discouraging the liberation efforts of MASSOB leader, Ralph Uwazuruike. “But I will assure them that they cannot stop Biafra,” he vowed.

•Photo shows Uwazuruike.

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