From DAVID ONWUCHEKWA, Nnewi

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) said it has postponed its awards ceremony scheduled for May 30, to mark its Biafra Day because former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi’s name was errornously listed as one of the awardees.

In another development, the group has hailed the Joint Task Force deployed to fight criminals and other lawless individuals in Onitsha, Nnewi and other major towns of Anambra State.

In a statement issued by the leader of MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, and signed by MASSOB  Deputy National  Director of Information, Mazi Chris Mocha, yesterday in  Nnewi, the group alleged that the former governor and his Imo State counterpart, Dr. Achike Udenwa, had between 2003 and 2006 deployed federal troops from different states and allegedly ordered them to shoot MASSOB members at sight.

“Mr. Peter Obi and former Imo State governor, Dr. Achike Udenwa, had ordered the killing of MASSOB members between 2003 and 2006 and would be tried in court in due course. Obi had on May 11, 2006 under the Presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo deployed over 200 federal troops most of whom were of Hausa and Fulani tribes to Onitsha and issued a shoot-at-sight order to them. Thousands of our members were killed, including a pregnant woman and 65 others still missing,” MASSOB alleged.

Meanwhile, MASSOB said it had given 90 per cent support to the operations of the Joint Task Force comprising the army, police, State Security Service (SSS) and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) deployed by Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State to tackle criminals in Onitsha, Nnewi and their environs.

Mocha accused the police in Onitsha of harbouring criminals and Indian hemp smokers, saying: “ If you arrest them because you reasonably believe that they have committed the offence and hand them over to the police with proof of evidence, the next moment the suspect would be released and the hunter becomes the hunted. I think that era is now over.”


Source: Sun