Biafra: IPOB threatens fresh mass protest over detained women by Army in Owerri

THE outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has condemned in its entirety the alleged arrest, detention and torture of grandmothers by the Nigerian soldiers in Owerri, Imo State, describing it as sacrilegious and barbaric.

The pro-Biafra group also threatened to call for a mass protest on Monday, August 20, in Igbo land if the women are not released by the Army authority.

In a statement issued by the IPOB Media/ National Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, made available to Nigerian Tribune in Enugu on Sunday, alleged: “the women are held in military custody by Nigerian soldiers and police under the most appalling conditions.”

The statement reads in parts:

“It is unheard of anywhere in the world that old women, some of them grandmothers, were arrested by army or police, teargassed, locked-up and tortured for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to peaceful assembly.

“If there were any doubts before that Ala-Igbo and the rest of Biafraland is a Fulani conquered territory, the abominable treatment of elderly women on a peaceful march, arrested, tortured and interrogated like common criminals, have all but dispelled it.

“That Imo State government gave the go-ahead to northern Islamic army and police formations across Imo State to abduct and torture our mothers, is a clear confirmation that Rochas Okorocha and his government has no regard for us as a people.

“The intention of the Islamic APC government is to intimidate and humiliate our people, women and the elderly. The abduction of grandmothers, some of them in their late 70s, is the worst kind of abomination.

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“It is an invitation to anarchy because if by the close of business on Monday, August 20, 2018, IPOB will call for a civil uprising against the oppressors and their agents in Ohaneze Ndigbo and government houses across Biafraland.

“This level of desecration and sacrilege will not happen in Arewa North neither will it be condoned in Yorubaland. It is happening in Biafraland because those that parade themselves as leaders (SE governors and Ohaneze) are cowards, appointed by the caliphate to act as their agents.

“When Fulani terrorist herdsmen rape our mothers in the farms, destroy our crops and means of livelihood, you don’t see any army or police rushing to protect them.

” No Fulani terror herdsmen has ever been arrested by the Nigerian army or police. But but the same long-suffering mothers, with nobody to protect them, are the ones being arrested, detained and tortured for exercising a constitutionally guaranteed right.

“As with other conspiratorial atrocities in Biafraland perpetrated by the Nigerian army, DSS and police, Igbo governors as the chief security officer of their states alongside Ohaneze Ndigbo, must be held responsible. Even in the North where Rochas Okorocha comes from, they don’t arrest elderly women on a protest march.

“It’s a pity that Nigeria security who cannot afford to stop or curtail Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram terrorists rampaging and killing people in every part of the country, only demonstrate their might against elderly women who only came out to demand for their right. “IPOB will not hesitate to alert the world that Okehi Police Station in Etche Rivers State is where the torture of Biafran women is taking place.

Meanwhile, the Enugu State Police Command has warned members of the public to stay away from the Monday demonstration planned by another pro-Biafra movement called “Biafra Zionists Federation ( BZF).

In a statement by the State Police Public Relations Officer, Ebere Amarizu said that any person or group of persons caught in an unauthorized assembly would be arrested and prosecuted by the law enforcement agency.

The self-acclaimed leader of BZF, Mazi Benjamin Onwuka had last month vowed to declare an independent state of Biafra on August 20, this year.

It would be recalled that Onwuka was arrested alongside other of his disciples by the police on their way to Enugu Government House to hoist Biafra flag.

The BZF leader and his men were later freed by the authority on sympathy ground.