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Leader of the group, Onwuka on the left with other members |
A Biafra separatist group yesterday failed in
its bid to overrun the Enugu State Government and seize a radio station.
The police stopped the Biafra Zionist
Movement (BZM) from achieving its aim and arrested its leader, Ben Onwuka and
12 others.
A police sergeant and a member of the group
died during a gun battle at the Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS).
Onwuka, a United Kingdom-based lawyer, armed
with a CD Rom for a broadcast to declare a “Republic of Biafra”, led members to
the station. The defunct Eastern region attempted secession as Biafra Republic
which led to a 30-month Civil War between 1967 and January 1970.
In the early hours of March 7, the group
attacked the Enugu Government House to hoist the flag of the still-born
Republic of Biafra. They insisted that Enugu was still the capital of Biafra.
Onwuka and over 500 of his members were on
November 5, 2012 arrested by the police and detained at the Enugu prisons,
after the group re-declared the Republic of Biafra.
The police in March declared Onwuka wanted
after the attempted invasion of the Government House.
Yesterday, the BZM members, numbering
about 20, as early as 4.30 am sneaked into the premises of the radio station
where Onwuka intended to broadcast the rebirth of the Republic of Biafra.
They chased out the security men and entered
the studio where they met a handful of employees who were on night shift.
But, the radio station was going through
challenges as a result of which every gadget was switched off. They were on the
verge of forcing some technical employees to switch on the gadgets when the
police arrived.
The security personnel who ran out of the
radio house alerted the police and four policemen arrived in two different
police cars.
Despite being four, they gunned down one of
them and arrested two. One of the policemen was overpowered by some of the BZM
members hiding in the bush. He was disarmed and shot him. An Inspector was
injured.
When reinforcement came, the BZM members had
escaped by scaling the fence of the Radio House.
But the police chased and caught up with
them, arresting the leader, Onwuka and 12 others.
Enugu Police chief, Mohammed Abubakar
Mohammed said the suspects invaded the Enugu Broadcasting Service with the
intention of setting the place ablaze.
He paraded the arrested members before the
media.
Mohammed said: “When they invaded the place
and by the time we reached there, we discovered a lot of arms, a lot of
machetes, they went there with 25 litres of petrol with about 46 empty beer
bottles and one Biafran flag.
“They went there with even guns because when
the police confronted them, they shot and killed the sergeant and in the
process of trying to prevent them from setting the place ablaze, they also had
a casualty. One of them was shot dead.
“About 13 of them were arrested including the
leader, Benjamin Igwe Onwuka,” the commissioner said.
According to him, they got access into the
studio, got the people in the studio and wanted them to give them access for a
live broadcast to the people.
Said he: “They had a CD Rom where the details
of what they wanted to say are contained.
“The highlights of what they wanted to tell
the public was an appeal calling for all boys from Obiagu, Ogui and entire
Enugu to come out. They also asked students to come out. The people with
Keke NAPEP to come out. They wanted to order all businesses to be closed
today (yesterday). All schools, markets, offices to be closed and all the
elected government officials to surrender all government property in their
possession by midday. These people went there in a sense to overturn the
government,” he said.
The police chief warned: “I want to sound
this note of warning to any group of persons or individuals that are planning
to foment trouble in whatever form to cause breach of the peace to any
community and to any society in this country, we shall not tolerate that.”
The police refused to allow the suspects to
be interviewed by reporters.
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Society
See me see trouble ooo. U pple should jus give dis man (President) small peace na. Habah..
ReplyDeleteWho tell those people parading their selves as biafra that is possible to get it by force,even if there will be biafra again it must be through peace process & if they try to get it by force it will end up in blood shed.
ReplyDeleteTel Dem my broda
ReplyDeleteSoon and very soon Biafra and Odu states will come........just wait and see
ReplyDeleteI am a Biafra sympathiser , if I have my way I will recur this men or frustrate any one who wants to implicate them .wait a minute , this could be the way northerners feel about bokoharam .
ReplyDeleteGod punish them. Ww dont want war in our country. We have suffered enough.
ReplyDeleteAm telling you.. after all the suffer and agony caused by miscreants' so called boko haram then you want to cause war....you all will remain in prison' they killed a police officer, unless you nigeria security don't know what they are doing they decide to allow this case sleep under the carpet. I will regret being a Nigerian, see the so called biafria soldiers looking on kept even and old man in their midst causing breach of peace to the society, at the long run they turn to boko people cos they shot a police officer with gun.. Govt let them face the full wrath of the law to serve as detriment to other group or society that are enemies of our dear country.
ReplyDeleteAm telling you.. after all the suffer and agony caused by miscreants' so called boko haram then you want to cause war....you all will remain in prison' they killed a police officer, unless you nigeria security don't know what they are doing they decide to allow this case sleep under the carpet. I will regret being a Nigerian, see the so called biafria soldiers looking on kept even and old man in their midst causing breach of peace to the society, at the long run they turn to boko people cos they shot a police officer with gun.. Govt let them face the full wrath of the law to serve as detriment to other group or society that are enemies of our dear country.
ReplyDelete