…Confirm killing of personnel

From Tony John, Port

Harcourt

Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Zaki Ahmed, has said that the command has arrested 32 supporters of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for their alleged involvement in the mayhem that occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state. Ahmed also confirmed that the command lost an officer, Sergeant Steven Daniel, when suspected IPOB members attacked policemen on duty, yesterday.

The CP stated that 23 of the pro-Biafra agitators were arrested on Tuesday and nine apprehended yesterday, after they allegedly attacked policemen on duty and killed an officer.

He disclosed this yesterday while briefing journalists at the command’s headquarters, Port Harcourt, on the outcome of the soldiers and IPOB members’ clash in Oyigbo LGA.

The police boss noted that the members of the group had no justification for their action, adding that they attacked a police van from Training School Nonwa, en route Port Harcourt International Airport, and burnt the van.

According to Ahmed, the driver of the van, Inspector Emaikwu Ochochi, was injured and is now on admission in hospital.

He alleged that members of the group also carted away an AK-47 rifle with 60 rounds of live ammunition and one Berretta pistol with eight rounds of live ammunition.

Ahmed said: “At the end of their rampage, many vehicles were damaged and stores burnt. The timely response of the police restored normalcy and brought the situation under control, as I made adequate deployment to arrest the situation.”

He added that the mob was dispersed with minimum force, thereby restoring law and order. He further said that the command got news about the killing of the sergeant at about 10am yesterday, allegedly by IPOB loyalists.

He claimed that members of IPOB regrouped and launched a surprise attack on mobile policemen stationed at Oyigbo junction, killing Daniel attached to 19 Police Mobile Force.

Kanu alleges assassination plot

• Cancels meeting with South East govs  • Reviews non-violence agitation 

• Ignore IPOB provocations –Northern Youth Coalition

From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha,  Chinelo Obogo, Lagos, Kemi Yesufu Abuja, Desmond

Mgboh, Kano and Okey Sampson, Aba   

Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has said he would not attend tomorrow’s meeting convened by the South-East Governors in Enugu due to alleged plot by soldiers to ambush and assassinate him on his way to the venue.

He also cited “military onslaught against innocent civilians of Biafra land” as another reason for shunning the invitation.

He said it was impossible to engage in any meaningful conversation with the governors in the midst of so much bloodshed, abductions and military siege of his town and villages.

“Accordingly, we will not engage in any meeting with anybody until the atmosphere is conducive and peaceful enough to allow for such. The siren-blaring military convoys and armoured vehicles occupying the entire region is not only designed to intimidate our people but also deliberately primed to scuttle the IPOB/South-East governors meeting,” he declared.

He said in the past, following advice by prominent leaders and groups, that he should toe the line of peaceful dialogue, he had met with the governors to find a lasting solution to the grievances which led to the August 30, 2017 meeting with the South-East Governors Forum at the Government House in Enugu, alongside Prof. Ben Nwabueze and Elliott Ugochukwu-Ukoh.

However, he said in view of the concerted effort by the “oppressive Nigerian state to shatter the peace and tranquility of the South-East and the rest of Biafraland through military intimidation, “it has become necessary for me to clarify why, regrettably, I may not be able to attend Friday’s meeting with the South-East governors as earlier agreed, for three main reasons.”

He added: “We are currently busy attending to our dead and injured from this latest round of unprovoked military onslaught against innocent civilians in our own land. All the casualties so far were shot by men of the Nigerian Army deployed to my house and those stationed along motor ways leading into Umuahia my hometown.”

He said while the governors meeting would be going, the leadership of IPOB through the instrumentality of the Directorate of State (DOS) headquartered in Germany, will be meeting to vote on the viability or otherwise of continuing its struggle in a non-violent manner.

“There is urgent need to begin the process of defending ourselves in the face of relentless murderous attacks from the Nigerian state,” he declared.

Meanwhile, Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has announced the extension of the dusk to dawn curfew he declared on the commercial hub of the state, Aba to Friday.

The curfew was initially to run from Tuesday to Thursday, but after holding series of meeting with security chiefs, the governor extended the curfew to Friday. 

The governor in a statement by his spokesperson appealed to residents and visitors to fully co-operate with security agents to ensure continued maintenance of law and order within the commercial city and environs.

He also deplored the situation where people were compelled to raise their hands while passing through security checkpoints and called on security agents and all concerned to ensure that such acts, and other forms of inhumane and barbaric treatment of people, were discontinued immediately.

This is even as the South East Caucus of the House of Representatives and the former president of Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazurike flayed the deployment of armed troops in the region and the house arrest of Kanu.

Chairman of Reps Caucus, Chukwuka Onyema in a statement said the reasons given for troops deployment were not convincing.

He said the reports of killings of unarmed civilians and the attack on the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Abia State pointed to the need for a review of the decision.

“While we appreciate the right to discharge core duties of the Nigeria armed forces as spelt out under section 217 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), there is no gainsaying that internal military operations can only be conducted without doing violence to the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human rights of citizens.

“To conduct operations that frighten, maim or lead to loss of lives of citizens and property, are clearly unjustifiable and an offence to our democracy and the rule of law.”

Chief Uwazurike said the deployment was a ploy by the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the state.

“I call on soldiers to withdraw them as the Ohanaeze has demanded. It is a notorious fact that the Governor of Abia state has spent the last two years in court trying to retain his position. This simulated crisis is just a ploy to impose military rule in Abia State just to have a war commander in the Government House. The people are not interested in military democracy”, he said in a statement he signed.

Ignore IPOB provocations –Arewa group

The Coalition of Northern Groups has called on its members to resist any attempt to drag them into taking the laws into their hands through unnecessary and unprovoked confrontations with members of any sectional, ethnic and religious groups.

Abdulazez Suleiman, spokesman of the group who briefed the press in the light of the recent clash between the military and members of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) in Abia State, accused some members of the South East political class of fueling agitations against the Buhari administration to make the government ungovernable.

It claimed that the ultimate target of the agitator was to sabotage the 2019 elections.

“The scenarios playing out today are planned to escalate by 2018 and probably in 2019, prevent a successful conduct of the elections and eventually, the collapse of democracy,” it said.

“The targeting of Buhari’s administration and singling him out for attacks and irreverent treatment is aimed at causing inter-regional crisis possibly leading to general unrest. The resurgence of separatist agitations, especially the violent brand by IPOB and its ilk in the South East represents a much wider conspiracy to divide Nigeria along ethnic and religious frontlines as well as achieve the balkanisation of the North.”

Despite the alleged scenarios, the group called for restrain.

“In this situation, it is essential that the North and northerners remain restrained and refuse to be provoked into reprisals which is the ultimate hope of the conflict instigators

It said they would address letters to the Federal Government and the UN Secretary General and to all the foreign missions in Abuja.