The leadership of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has called on the Commissioner of Police in Abia State, CP Ene Okon, to stop creating artificial tension in the state through his unguarded and insensitive statements on the burial of late traditional ruler of Afaraukwu, HRH Eze Israel Kanu, and his wife, Ugoeze Sally Kanu.

The group condemned a statement credited to the CP where he was quoted as saying that police and other security agents would scatter and disrupt the burial of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s parents if members of IPOB attend.

MASSOB in a statement on Monday in Awka, Anambra State, stressed that the threatening statement was not only uncalled for, but also borne out of cowardice and hunger to satisfy the interest of the Abuja masters that employed the Police Commissioner.

The statement made available to journalists by MASSOB leader, Uche Madu, reads in part: “We wish to remind the Abia State CP that no amount of his loyalty and self-stabbing sacrifices to his Abuja masters will ever earn him goodwill from Abuja.

“The same anti-Christian stick they used on our brother, Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen, will still be used on you.

“The Abia State police boss statement is deceiving and full of inconsequential morale boosting of his personnel and other security agents in Abia State.

“He is being used to create unnecessary security tension in a peaceful state. The people of Afaraukwu community are peace loving people.”

MASSOB insisted that the burial of Nnamdi Kanu’s parents is not an IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) or Biafra event, adding that there will be no display or flying of Biafra flags or showcasing of any Biafra insignia at the burial.

It urged security agencies to stop creating unnecessary and artificial tension in Afaraukwu Umuahia.

The statement further reads: “MASSOB wish to inform the Nigeria security agencies that the burial ceremony of HRM, Eze Israel Kanu and his wife is not an IPOB or Biafra function, it is purely an Igbo traditional burial of Afaraukwu Umuahia traditional ruler and his wife.

“Ndigbo have resolved to accord Nnamdi Kanu’s parents a befitting burial as a profound traditional ruler. Their burial ceremony is not Biafra rally or demonstration.

“The subjective and molestation of Afaraukwu people by the Nigerian Army and the unguarded outburst of Abia State police boss will never deter Ndigbo from the burial of HRH Eze Israel Kanu and his wife.”

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