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Pro-Biafra groups adopt new name

By Lawrence Njoku (Enugu)
06 June 2016   |   2:01 am
Pro-Biafra agitators across Africa at the weekend adopted a new name ‘Biafra Peoples National Council (BPNC)’ with a call on the Commonwealth of Nations to immediately begin the process...

Pro-Biafra-protestsSeek Nigeria’s expulsion from Commonwealth
Pro-Biafra agitators across Africa at the weekend adopted a new name ‘Biafra Peoples National Council (BPNC)’ with a call on the Commonwealth of Nations to immediately begin the process of expelling Nigeria from its fold over the continued pogrom and extermination of people of Biafran origin by the incumbent administration of the country.

The new name according to them would help in the speedy realization of the objective of a sovereign Biafra.They stated that allowing Nigeria to continue in the Commonwealth of Nations was like endorsing the illegal arrests, incessant torture and killings, detention and imprisonment of innocent men and women of Biafra by the government, urging the body to invoke her founding principles as it did against Nigeria in 1995 with the unjust execution of Ogoni nine activists including Ken Saro Wiwa and Chief MKO Abiola.

In a statement released after their three-day conference in Ghana and made available to reporters in Enugu on Sunday, they insisted that the
ordinary people of Biafra had been subjected to so much torture in Nigeria that it would be unfair to restrict the country from sanctions.

They articulated their reasons for the call to expel Nigeria from Commonwealth as “ the extra-judicial executions by various security apparatus of the Federal Government of Nigeria with criminal acquiecence of pro-government militia under the guise of Fulani herdsmen are unacceptable; the unprecedented use of brutal force by the Nigerian police and army against unarmed peaceful protesters and cold blooded murder of more than 50 Biafran activists celebrating Biafra National Day and remembrance of our fallen heroes on 30th May 2016 in various locations in Biafraland.”

Others include:“ The recent burning and destruction of stores in a section of the Ladipo Market Lagos by sponsored Yoruba youths notoriously called Area Boys, the genocidal invasion and massacre at Nimbo, Uzo-Uwani, Enugu State and surrounding communities by the Fulani invaders, the raping and killing of defenceless women and children at Ugwuleshi, Agwu Enugu State by Fulani herdsmen among others.

The group also alleged that the government had failed to adhere to the post-conflict agreement of Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation (3Rs) at the end of the 1967-70 civil war and called the attention of the international community to the continuous prosecution of the civil war through the official policy of neglect, abandonment and persecution of veterans of the civil war origin at Oji River in Enugu State.

They continued: “The conference demands that the state of Nigeria should live up to its promises and international obligations
which she has too long neglected and denied to the veterans.

The conference frowns and condemns the attitude of the Commonwealth of Nations towards the senseless, cruel, inhumane, degrading and extra-judicial killings of more than 700 unarmed civilians of Biafran origin and pro-Biafran activists by various security apparatus of the
Federal Government of Nigeria and its militias under the disguise of
Fulani herdsmen”, they noted.

Demanding an immediate stop to the wanton killings and massacre of people of Biafran extraction, they also called on the government to release unconditionally all pro-Biafra activists in detention including Nnamdi Kanu, Benjamin Onwuka, David Nwawuisi, Benjamin Madubugwu and Chukwuebuka Ikenwa among others.

They stated that Organization of Emerging African States (OEAS) decided to come together under the umbrella age of Biafra Peoples National Council (BPNA) for “speedy achievement of independent state of Biafra by creating an umbrella platform”.

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