The police, yesterday, dismissed the claim that 11 members of the Indegenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were killed during a rally in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital to celebrate the inauguration of President Donald Trump of United States (US).
IPOB claimed that beyond the alleged killings, 200 of its members who participated in the event were missing. The police disputed the allegation, saying nobody died from live bullets during the rally. Separately, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), condemned the police action against IPOB.
A statement by the IPOB spokesman, Mr. Emma Powerful, said 11 of its members were killed and 200 missing, describing as untrue the statement by the police that only one person died.
The IPOB statement read:
“We, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its leadership worldwide, wish to use this medium to correct the erroneous impression that we carried out a protest.
IPOB members on solidarity march for Trump “What IPOB did on 20th of January 2017 in Igweocha, Port Harcourt, Rivers State was a peaceful rally in solidarity with the newly elected President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald J Trump, who took oath of office in Washington D.C.
“The event was scheduled and announced as a rally and not a protest. We would also like to place it on record that IPOB worldwide has confirmed that more than 11 Biafrans died as a result of the unprovoked, brutal and unwarranted military assault on our members during this peaceful rally.
“Many more are in hospitals receiving treatment with over 200 abducted presumed dead. It is incumbent on the civilized world to prevail on the regime of President Buhari to release the dead bodies and those they abducted; and to refrain from abducting those receiving treatment in hospitals.
“IPOB Family Units, whose members are missing, are advised to forward their names to our secretariat.” Joining issues with IPOB while parading over 65 members of the group arrested during the Port Harcourt rally, Rivers State Police Command dismissed the rumour that some members of the group died as a result of live bullet fired into the rally.
Meanwhile, Speaking while parading the suspects, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Magagi, who briefed newsmen on behalf of the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Francis Odesanya, said IPOB took the law into its hand by staging unlawful protest, thereby disturbing the peace of the state. Magagi said the action of IPOB members violated Section 41 of the Criminal Code, Cap C37 Laws of the Federation 2014 which he said amounted to treasonable felony.
He said the activities of members of the group also caused hardship to Port Harcourt residents as they disrupted free flow of traffic which prevented normal business. DCP Magagi said the security operatives only used reasonable force such as teargas in an effort to disperse the protesters from carrying out their unlawful intention.
The police boss disclosed that it would charge the arrested members of the IPOB to court. Condemning the police action against IPOB, in a statement in Abakaliki, yesterday, the leader of MASSOB, Comrade Uchenna Madu, stressed that the clampdown, imprisonment, persecution and extra-judicial killing of Biafra agitators by security agents will not deter them from achieving their objectives.
“Though we know that the government of President Buhari is tyrannical, devilish and exhibiting religious and ethnic hatred against Christians and Igbo Biafrans, we don’t anticipate that Nigeria security agents will still be primitive in handling civilians affairs that attract international attention like Biafra actualization struggle”, the statement said.
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