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Eyewitness reports confirm that MASSOB has shut down business activities at Onicha, Asaba, Aba and Owere. Reports from other cities on the first day of sit-at-home exercise will come in soonest. Despite the counter government propaganda, action speaks louder than words. Once again the people of Biafra have shown that power and sovereignty belong to the people.
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TO GOD BE THE GLORY!! PRAISE THE LORD, HALLELUIAH!!!! I am glad.
___________________ BIAFRA: The land of my ancestors now, yesterday and always. So it will be! Posts: 2482 | From: Ala Igbo | Registered: Apr 2004
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Ijendu Iheaka, Fidelis Soriwei, Tajudeen Suleiman and Sunday Aborisade
Socio-Economic activities in most parts of the South-East were grounded on Monday while passengers, especially those travelling to Lagos and Abuja were stranded, as the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra began a stay-at-home protest.
The shut down of the geopolitical zone is to protest the arrest and detention of MASSOB Leader, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, and to press for the group’s demand for an independent nation for the Igbo.
MASSOB called the protest after Uwazurike was arrested on October 25. He was charged with treason and the court remanded him in custody.
This is the second protest in a year by the group, which had staged a successful stay-at-home order on August 27, 2004 as a part of plans to actualise its dreams for a Biafran nation.
In Anambra, Imo, Enugu and Abia states, most shops, banks, schools, offices and petrol stations in major cities in the states were shut while youths lit bonfires on major highways to impede movement of human and vehicular traffic.
Our correspondents said that Igbo traders in Lagos also observed the protest as shops in Ladipo, Ojo Alaba and Mushin were shut.
Policemen from the Anambra State Command, however, cordoned off the Niger Bridge, Onitsha to prevent the protesters from taking over the bridge.
The Anambra State Government, however, dissociated itself from the protest and warned civil servants against staying at home.
The Secretary to the Government, Mr. Alex Chukwurah, said civil servants who stayed away from work would be penalised.
But most civil servants in the state ignored the warning.
There were, however, conflicting reports over the reported shooting of two schoolchildren and three protesters in Onitsha by a contingent of policemen, who were armed with assault rifles, drafted to the streets, to restore order.
Teachers at the Eastern Academy in the Upper Iweka district of Onitsha said that a teenage girl, Ogechi Okeke, who was hit by a stray bullet had been taken to hospital with serious injuries.
The spokesman for the MASSOB, Mr. Uchenna Madu, said, “The latest information at our disposal is that a 15-year-old boy was shot dead by policemen from Awada Police Station in the city.”
Madu said he had also heard about the schoolgirl’s shooting and added that three demonstrators were shot in the legs as they fled from police.
“This is barbaric and wicked of the Nigerian police. It is only in Nigeria that police who are paid with taxpayers’ money will open fire on a defenceless crowd,” he added.
A senior officer at the police station denied that anyone had been killed.
Witnesses told the Agence France Presse that the girl had been taken to hospital and doctors confirmed that they had treated injuries after the protests.
But the Commissioner of Police, Anambra State Police Command, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, called the claim “a blasted lie” and challenged those making the claim to produce the bodies of those killed.
In Awka, a 36-year-old stallholder, Ms. 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.
Earlier, police had fired tear gas to disperse groups of youths who had mounted burning barricades in the streets in an attempt to enforce the two-day stay-at-home protest.
The normally bustling streets of Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of the South-East, were deserted as residents obeyed the order of the MASSOB.
“People are sitting 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.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Haz Iwendi, said, “All trouble-makers will be crushed.
“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. We will ensure that the activities of MASSOB or any other unlawful gang are not allowed henceforth.”
He said that police reinforcements were deployed across Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.
But the MASSOB spokesman said, “What we are doing is civil disobedience against the oppression and marginalisation of Biafrans. We have told them time without number that we are no longer part of Nigeria. We are Biafrans in soul and body.
“Nobody can kill the spirit of the people. The reports from Aba, Enugu, Abakaliki, Enugu, Owerri, Awka, Okigwe, Nsukka and Umuahia this morning showed that the people are complying with the stay-at-home order.”
In Enugu, the situation was similar as residents obeyed the sit-at-home order.
The Commissioner of Police, Enugu State Command, Mr. Charles Dawodu, in a statement broadcast on the state radio and television 24 hours to the commencement of the protest, advised residents to disregard the MASSOB order and go about their legitimate businesses, assuring them of adequate police protection.
But most residents, as in similar MASSOB protest last year, stayed at home.
All the major markets in the Coal City, including Ogbete, Kenyata, New Market and Artisan Market, were closed, while banks only allowed customers in through the back doors after proper scrutiny by security men.
A bank customer who simply identified herself as Ngozi told our correspondents that she had to wait for more than 40 minutes at the main gate before she was called in through the back entrance.
At the Obiagu area of Enugu, youths made bonfires with disused tyres, resulting in a clash with the police who tried to dislodge them.
When the police got to Edinburgh Road, the Fleet Street of Enugu, they started firing tear gas canisters in a bid to dislodge passers-by.
Five policemen in mufti descended on a circulation executive of the Daily Independent newspaper, Mr. Matthew Akumakuhie, who had advised the police team to exercise caution.
However the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Mike Abattam, told newsmen that he was not aware of the incident at Edinburgh Road.
In Owerri, the Imo State capital, commercial activities were also paralysed as residents joined in the protest.
Major banks did not open for business while shops and markets were closed.
However, there was free movement of vehicles while some workers reported for work.
In Lagos, a spare parts seller in the popular Ladipo market, Mr. Anayo Ajunwa, said the protest was a necessary sacrifice for “freedom.”
Another trader, Mr. Felix Chijoke, however, disagreed with him, saying the price was too high.
“The protest should have been fixed on weekend, like Sunday, when we will not lose too much sales,” he said.
The PUNCH, Tuesday, December 06, 2005
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___________________ Biafra is inevitable.Illegitimis nil carborundum. Posts: 760 | From: europe | Registered: Jan 2005
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