Enyimba city has fallen! I have just come off the phone and my relatives report that all businesses activities have been crippled in Aba.
In Onitsha, the BiafraNigerian police have been going to shoot alleged MASSOB members in their houses!
Have you been in touch with any other city? Share your news.
Stay tuned.........
___________________ Awo's political idea was based on the assumption that any town beyond Owo was Igbo or Hausa. Awo was not socialised; he was not a good mixer because he did not have the opportunity, which the secondary school offered. ~TOS Benson, Baba Oba of Lagos Posts: 2644 | From: United Kingdom | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote: Enyimba city has fallen! I have just come off the phone and my relatives report that all businesses activities have been crippled in Aba - Ohafia the Alarmist
Fallen ko fallen ni. The shortman devil is sitting his ass in jail, Ojukwu is celebrating his birthday and you are here telling us something has fallen. I wish that thing falls on your head.
posted
There is no reason to doubt Ohafia, Reuters has it on wire; -------------------------------------------------- Separatist protest shuts down part of Nigeria 05 Dec 2005 12:35:05 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Ijeoma Ezekwere ONITSHA, Nigeria, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Millions of Nigerians from the Ibo ethnic group boycotted work on Monday in a stay-at-home protest called by a separatist group that has drawn a tough response from federal authorities.
Massob Leader, Uwazuruike
The normally manic market streets of Onitsha, a southeastern city on the banks of the Niger River that is the largest centre of Ibo trade, were as quiet as a Christmas Day, residents said.
Aba, the second largest commercial hub, also ground to a halt, but the protest was only partially successful in Enugu, another major city, according to residents.
It was the second major stay-at-home protest called by the outlawed Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), which campaigns for the peaceful secession of the southeastern region known as Biafra.
"I am staying at home to support what MASSOB is doing. After all, Nigeria has not been treating me well. Biafra must be independent," said Christopher Efoke, a young Ibo motor mechanic in Onitsha.
MASSOB draws on Ibo feelings of marginalisation that caused the 1967-1970 civil war in which the southeast tried to break away before surrendering to the federal army.
Authorities have cracked down on MASSOB, arresting hundreds of members and putting its leader on trial for treason.
In Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, located in the southwest where the Yoruba are the dominant tribe, and in the federal capital Abuja in the centre of Nigeria, Ibo market stalls and shops were deserted.
In Ibo cities, some people said they wanted to go to work but were unable to because there was no transport, while others said they stayed at home because they were fearful of trouble.
CARS SET ON FIRE
In the New Parts area of Onitsha, a spare car parts market, some MASSOB members burnt tyres and set fire to a few cars to block a road. Police fired in the air to disperse them and witnesses said a few people were injured in stone-throwing.
In Enugu, riot police and troops patrolled the streets and cleared bonfires set by militants. Some businesses opened by midday after remaining shut in the morning.
MASSOB advocates peaceful secession and its protests are usually non-violent, but in recent months some members have used tougher tactics, in response to what they say is persecution from authorities.
The government considers that advocating the break-up of Nigeria is treasonable, and it rejects the idea of losing swathes of its territory, particularly oil-rich areas.
During the civil war, Biafra included the oil-producing Niger Delta, but the Ibo are not the main tribe there and many delta-based militants want no part in an independent Biafra.
The Ibo are the third biggest ethnic group in Africa's most populous country, after the Hausa-Fulani in the north and the Yoruba in the southwest.
More than a million people died in the Biafran war, mostly from hunger, and many Ibo regard the war as a failure and secession as a pipe-dream. However, MASSOB has reinvigorated ethnic nationalist sentiment, particularly among younger Ibo who did not experience the war.
The black, red and green flag of the defunct Biafran Republic has reappeared and now flies from numerous homes and businesses across Iboland, while some people have started using an outlawed Biafran currency.
Posts: 1532 | From: USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
Now we know who has the ears and mind of the Igbo Grassroot between ohanaefulefu and MASSOB. While not let Ohanaefulefu call for similar gesture and lets see how many people who will obey them. Ohanaeze are group of job seeking politicians who doesn't speak for Igbos.
posted
Wire reports continue to confrim compliance has been high in Igbo land and elsewhere with a lot of people sympathizing with MASSOB. I think Ohaneze should do the honorable and bow out of the scene. -------------------------------------------------
ONITSHA, Nigeria (AFP) - Millions of Nigerians deserted the normally bustling streets and markets of cities in the southeast of the country as police cracked down violently on a protest called to demand independence for the 40-million-strong Igbo people.
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Riot police fired tear gas and live rounds to disperse gangs of youths who blocked the roads of Onitsha with burning barricades in a bid to enforce a total business shut-down called by a separatist group which dreams of resurrecting the breakaway Biafran Republic.
Police spokesman Haz Iwendi was uncompromising in his message to demonstrators, saying: "All trouble-makers will be crushed."
The banned Movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) alleged that police had shot dead three people; a 15-year-old boy, a schoolgirl and a demonstrator.
Witnesses told AFP the girl had been taken to hospital and doctors confirmed that they had treated injuries after the protests, but Police Commissioner Felix Ogbaudu called the claim "a blasted lie" and demanded the separatists produce bodies to prove there had been killings.
Meanwhile, shops, banks and gasoline stations in the southern cities of Onitsha, Owerri and Awka were shuttered up and the streets deserted.
"People are sticking at home, and we can't force them out. It's their right to go to work or not. Our concern is to ensure that there's no breakdown in law and order," Ogbaudu said.
In Awka, 36-year-old stallholder Rebecca Nwogu said MASSOB was "fighting for all of us and we have to obey their order. If they ask me to close my business for a year, I will not hesitate."
"It is a struggle of our lives, to free our people from slavery," agreed civil servant Francis Mbanaso, 41.
Trouble erupted in Onitsha when MASSOB supporters erected blazing street barricades. Police cleared the roads, but witnesses alleged that riot officers had also shot two children.
Teachers at the Eastern Academy in the Upper Iweka district of Onitsha told AFP that a teenage girl, Ogechi Okeke, had been hit by a stray round and taken to hospital with serious injuries.
MASSOB spokesman Uchenna Madu said that the girl later died, and that a 15-year-old boy had also been shot dead. He also accused the police of shooting dead a MASSOB member called Ikechukwu Opi, allegedly for no reason other than that he had left home wearing the group's symbol.
These claims could not be independently confirmed.
Separatist leaders called for the protest after their chief, Ralph Uwazurike, was arrested by federal police on October 25 and later charged with treason.
"What we are doing is civil disobedience against the oppression and marginalisation of Biafrans. We have told them times without number that we are no longer part of Nigeria. We are Biafrans in soul and body," Madu told AFP.
In 1967 General Emeka Ojukwu led southeast Nigeria in a revolt against federal rule, declaring Igbo lands to be an independent "Republic of Biafra". He fought and lost a bitter three-year civil war with government forces.
About a million people died, most of them Igbo refugees killed by disease and starvation.
Today, the Igbo make up just under a third of Nigeria's 130 million people, but feel they have been excluded from national politics by the Hausa of the north and Yoruba from the southwest.
In 1999 Uwazurike founded MASSOB to revive the idea of an independent Igbo homeland, this time promising a non-violent struggle for self-determination. His movement has slowly gathered support in a region that still feels its people are persecuted by the central government.
Recently, the Biafran pound has begun reappearing in eastern marketplaces and MASSOB members have become bolder in displaying their banner and holding protest marches.
"MASSOB is an illegal group which has no right to call for a protest. We will not allow them to derail this democracy and the unity of Nigeria," Iwendi said.
He said police reinforcements were deployed across the Igbo heartland states in the southeast of the country: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo.
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