MASSOB reacts to Buhari’s comments on agitation, says it will never support restructuring
– MASSOB has said that it is only in interested in Biafra republic not restructuring of Nigeria
– President Muhammadu Buhari had warned that his government would not tolerate any agitation for the division of the country
– The group said that it would not be intimidated to drop its struggle for Biafra
The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has said that it was not interested in the restructuring of Nigeria, but a complete secession from Nigeria.
The Punch reports that MASSOB’s recent statement is coming on the heels of President Muhammadu Buhari’s warning that his government would not tolerate any agitation for the division of the country.
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plusmilang.com gathered that while speaking through a telephone interview with The Punch, MASSOB’s national director for Information, Sunday Okereafor, explained that the movement would never be intimidated into dropping the struggle for Biafra.
Okereafor pointed out that MASSOB began the struggle 18 years ago with agreement that its agitation would be non-violence. He decried a situation where its members were tagged miscreants, maintaining that it was wrong for those seeking for a Biafran nation to be given bad names.
“We don’t want restructuring. There is a difference between restructuring and what we stand for; it is Biafra or nothing. MASSOB supporters and members are not miscreants. Nobody should describe us as miscreants because our style of agitation is not violence.
“If we are called miscreant, then those calling us such a name are saying Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and others who fought for the freedom of Nigeria were miscreants.
“Without Azikiwe, Awolowo and others, who fought for the freedom of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari would not have been the President of Nigeria now. “In his recent speech, he (President Buhari) referred to us as “some elements”; but we are freedom fighters, we are not elements. We are fighting for freedom through our non-violent approach and in line with internationally recognised practice,” he stressed. The MASSOB’s spokesman argued that secession was not an abomination, adding that since Britain granted Nigeria freedom to be independent, there was nothing wrong for Nigeria to allow Biafra to be.
He stressed: “Secession is not an abomination; if the President thinks secession is an abomination, why then is he in support of the call that Israel should give Palestine freedom. “If he says it (secession) is a taboo, but Britain allowed Nigeria and other former colonies to go. So, there is nothing wrong if Biafra gets freedom.”
On the controversy surrounding the ownership of Radio Biafra in London, Okereafor insisted that contrary to the claim by the Indigenous People of Biafra, the radio station belonged to MASSOB and its leader, Chief Ralph Uwazurike.
IPOB had earlier said in a statement signed by its Deputy Leader, Uche Mefor, that MASSOB and Uwazurike should not lay claim to the ownership of the radio station based outside the country.
But Okereafor explained that Radio Biafra was first established in the United States of America before it was moved to London, adding that IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, did not contribute a dime to the establishment of Radio Biafra.
Meanwhile, plusmilang.com had previously reported that the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State Of Biafra (MASSOB), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to let Biafrans go.
