The clash between members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the army, which is reportedly creating ripples in the South-East and Rivers State, has caused some governors in parts of the North to take pre-emptive measures to ensure peace. JUDE OSSAI, CELESTINE IHEJIRIKA, JOE NWACHUKWU and EBENEZER ADUROKIYA report on the latest developments.
IT has been a week of tension in Abia State and other parts of the South-East, following the deployment of soldiers in an exercise tagged Operation Python Dance which has brought the military into conflict with members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). The resulting clashes have reverberated in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital and Jos, the Plateau State capital with states like Benue, Delta, Edo and Bayelsa states already feeling the effects.
Reports from Asaba, the Delta State capital, which shares geographical border with Anambra State, revealed subtle anxiety in solidarity with the IPOB. Sunday Tribune made attempts to speak with some Igbo who are resident in Warri on the situation but most of them said they would not like to comment on the issue.
Notwithstanding, a peace and environmental activist, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, who spoke with Sunday Tribune pleaded that people should remain calm, saying the Federal Government was doing all it could to redress the issues at stake.
Mulade, National Coordinator for Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ), however, decried the call for secession by IPOB as uncalled for.
“Their demand is uncalled for and unacceptable. If this issue in the South East is not well handled, Nigeria will become history. The government should be careful and adopt peaceful means of resolving this issue.
“Nigerians are not happy and they are no longer patriotic. Nigeria is degenerating into ethnic and regional divides. The government cannot sit in one place and give order to arrest people and kill them. They are not rats. You cannot go and surround Kanu’s houses,” he argued.
Comrade Mulade, who’s also the chairman of Kokodiagbene community in Gbaramatu kingdom, urged the FG to employ the services of the traditional institution in the country to resolve agitations in the country instead of the use of brute force. He also advised the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu to refrain from hate speeches and not start a war that may not augur well for all Nigerians.
Lawyer and rights activist, Oghenejabor Ikimi, who’s also the national coordinator of the Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged (CENTREP), while speaking on the IPOB crisis told Sunday Tribune that there was the need to restructure the country.
“If we restructured this country, those agitations that are championing the sectionalism and self determination, all will fizzle out; what is this restructuring all about?
“It is addressing all the injustices and the lopsidedness of our federation, that is the solution and all these things will fizzle out, they know. The government knows this, but they do not have the courage to correct the errors, and they know how to correct these errors,” he explained.
But members of the IPOB still do not believe their agitations for a state of Biafra is wrong. As far as they are concerned there is nothing illegitimate in the rights to seek a better alternative in the choice of the country they wish to live in. They therefore viewed the deployment of soldiers in Abia and the siege to their leader, Nnamdi Kanu’s house as an act of intimidation and provocation by the Nigerian government, especially when there was no reason of conflict or security breach for such deployment.
Indeed, IPOB Media/National Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, in a reaction berated the military action which he said was not sanctioned by the elected representatives of the people at the National Assembly.
“Where on earth is it heard that combat-ready troops are deployed within the borders of a country to deal with a non-violent civil matter? Only in Nigeria. It makes a mockery of the role of the military and nonsense of the constitution, that soldiers can be ordered by one army officer, without the permission of the Senate, to kill civilian populations in an area devoid of any conflict.
“We ask every Biafran to remain calm and continue to be law abiding in our peaceful agitation to restore Biafra. Let nobody entertain any fear because the world knows we are IPOB and, as such, we are without fear before our enemies. IPOB Family under the command and leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu are in the mighty hands of the Lord the Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,” he stated.
Like Powerful, many other Igbo leaders share the same sentiments that the army was wrong to have ordered a siege to Abia, when there was no break down of law and order.
Human rights activist and lawyer, Okey Onyeka is of the opinion that government must have the right perspective of what constitutes security threat and address marginalization before taking a military step to quell perceived agitations.
“Obviously it is not a matter of whether the military or the army has the right to occupy the South-East zone if they feel the territory is threatened. So, for me it is whether the assessment of the situation of alleged security threat is right in the sense that security threat may be doubted by others based on people›s perception of what they regard as security threat.
“In the circumstance of Nigeria, the people of South-East have consistently talked about marginalisation, especially in the current administration, in each key sector of the economy. A situation where a group of people are not part of the security architecture of the country they belong, there is room for suspicion,” he stated.
Another human rights activist and constitutional lawyer, Dr Anthony C. B. Agbazuere, in his reaction, called on the Federal Government and the Chief of Army Staff to immediately withdraw the troops in the interest of peace and tranquillity, saying it was uncalled for. According to him, Section 217 of the Nigerian Constitution condemns the action of the government, even if it (Federal Government) felt that Nnamdi Kanu had violated his bail condition.
Dr Agbazuere added that the matter is already in court; therefore the Attorney-General of the Federation had equally filed processes, saying the inhuman bail conditions are being challenged at the federal Appeal Court.
“I therefore enjoin all parties to wait the decision and determination of the court and should not resort to self-help,” he pleaded, just as he berated the reported invasion of the state Secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists in Umuahia. He called on the Federal Government and Nigerian Army to fish out the culprit without further delay as democracy and the press cannot be under siege.
The Chief Whip of Enugu State House of Assembly, Honourable Matthias Ekweremadu, however, had called on the people of South-East geopolitical zone not to panic over the presence of the military in their territory but to go about their business without fear.
“I am calling on our people not to shiver because of the Python Dance (military exercise). I advise the people not to keep late hours and to carry their identification cards with them wherever they go. You should not stay late at night and should not shiver. Anywhere you are going, make sure that you go with your ID card, «Ekweremadu admonishes.
The tension has not been without its effects. For those individuals who have expressed indifference to the whole issue, the last few days since the impasse began have caused them untold hardship.
Sunday Tribune investigation revealed that the face-off between the army and the IPOB might have been affecting night life in major cities and towns in the South-East. Already, Aba is under what some people call “military siege” as curfew has been evoked by the state government, putting residents of the area under watch.
Reports from Enugu, Onitsha, Nnewi, Umuahia and Owerri, Awka and Abakaliki, to mention a few, indicate that some hotel and pub operators are already complaining over poor sales, as very few customers are coming out to patronise them.
The Biafra issue is also not limited to the South-East. In Jos, Plateau State, for instance, whiffs of likely violence were felt and these prompted the state government to declare a curfew on Friday evening. The dusk to dawn curfew was the talking point among residents of the sate just before it took off as they debated on how they were going to cope with it.
On Friday evening residents, traders and business owners had to close on time so that they could get back home before the six o’clock deadline. Just two days into the curfew regime, residents are somewhat apprehensive about the timeline of the step taken by the government hoping it would not take too long.
Though the army was scheduled to leave the areas where they had been active during the last week, it may be presumptive to say that the macabre dance of Operation Python dance would end very soon, especially with the claim by IPOB members that Kanu and some of his family members’ whereabouts is unknown and that they could have been abducted by the military.
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