NEWS: NIGERIA - Group raises alarm over blockade of Onitsha Bridge Head by soldiers

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has raised alarm over the seeming blockade caused by soldiers at the Onitsha Bridge Head leading to suffocation and serious traffic jam with untold hardship on the travelers.


In a press statement titled “Second civil war at Onitsha Niger Bridge head: Hausa Fulani soldiers 
on rampage against Igbo and South –South Christmas returnees” released in Onitsha yesterday, signed by Chairman, Board of Trustees of Intersociety, Emeka Umeagbalasi, the group accused soldiers from 302 Artillery Regiment Onitsha of using the Pro-Biafran peaceful protests as cover to deal with Igbo travelers.

The statement noted that millions of home bound people of the south east and south have been trapped at the bridge head while new born children, nursing mothers and elderly people are blocked and made to suffer and suffocate few miles to their ancestral homes.
“Since Wednesday, 23rd December 2015, soldiers from the 302 Artillery Regiment , Onitsha had blocked the Onitsha Niger Bridge Head and deliberately subjected Christmas returnees to excruciation pains and hardships under the guise of checking and spotting members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and MASSOB to the extent that livestock and perishable food items worth millions of naira were lost. In another field trip of 27th December 2015 at the same spot, the Onitsha end of the Bridge head was deliberately and completely blocked by the same soldiers.”


The group in the statement also slammed Governor Willie Obiano for his seeming silence and inaction over the situation and noted that no “No sensible, capable and competent governor folds his hands and watches his people returning for seasonally important feast like Christmas being made to sleep by the bush sides or inside their vehicles for many hours, if not for whole day. This is the greatest threat against their rights to ethnic identity, existence, and social development and cohabitation, enshrined and recognized in the 1999 Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights of 1981 domesticated by Nigeria in 1983” the statement noted.


They called for the immediate decongestion of the bridge to allow for free flow of traffic for the smooth passage of innocent travelers.
Efforts made to contact the Commander, 302 Artillery Regiment, Col. Issah Abdullahi for comments proved abortive as calls made to his cell phone were not answered.

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