The Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of the Biafra (MASSOB) has urged the Federal Government to pay without further delay, reparation to the Igbo because of the massacre they suffered during the civil war.

This was even as the Movement picked holes in the appointment of former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Theophilus Danjuma, to head the Terrorism Rehabilitation Committee.

The demand for reparation followed the recent move by the Federal Government to raise funds for the rehabilitation of victims of terrorism in the country.

President Goodluck Jonathan had recently set up the committee, which raised about N60 billion, as take-off fund during the launch of Victim Support Fund in Abuja, last week.

Acting Director of Information of MASSOB, Sunny Okereafor, said in an interview in Aba, Abia State, that since the Federal Government had woken up from its slumber to face its responsibility of rehabilitating victims of terror, Ndigbo should be the first to be paid reparation over what he described as the 1966 pogrom and the subsequent civil war massacre of the people from the South-East.

His words: “Our people suffered much more than the vic­tims of Boko Haram. We were killed in greater number during the civil war than now and if justice must prevail, since the Federal Government appears to have woken from its slumber, Ndigbo must first be paid reparation over the 1966 pogrom and the subsequent civil war massacre.”

Okereafor faulted the ap­pointment of General T. Y. Danjuma to head the Terrorism Rehabilitation Committee on the basis of his alleged role in the civil war, and expressed doubt that the people of South-East, who were also likely to benefit from the funds, would be fairly treated by the committee.

“All of us know the role Danjuma played before, dur­ing and after the civil war and since some Igbo are supposed to benefit from the funds raised by the committee, we doubt if the former chief of army staff’s headship of such committee will be beneficial to any Igbo man,” the MASSOB spokes­man said.

•Text courtesy of Daily Sun. Photo shows MASSOB Leader Ralph Uwazuruike.