S’East govs’ to meet as Biafra protests spread

As protests by agitators for a Biafra state continue to spread, the Imo State governor and Chairman of Progressives Governors’ Forum, Chief Rochas Okorocha, has called for a crucial meeting with other governors in the South-East to address the issue.
In another round of protests, members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) yesterday, shut down markets in Aba, Abia State, in continuation of its three-day one million protest march calling for the release of their detained leader and Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
Similarly, Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, said it had mobilized over 2,000-members for a peaceful protest in Ebonyi State.
In a statement by Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, Chief Press Secretary to Okorocha, the governor also invited the leadership of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo, and other stakeholders in the geo-political zone, to talk and agree on how to check the activities of pro-Biafra groups in the area.
“The meeting is expected to take place this weekend in Owerri, the Imo State capital. Already the governor has begun to make all the necessary contacts to ensure that all those expected to be at the meeting, would be in attendance”, Onwuemeodo said.
It will be recalled that Okorocha had earlier, while taking exception to the pro-Biafra violent protests in some of the South-East states and few other neighbouring states, disassociated the governors and leaders in the South-East states from the MASSOB protest, describing the whole exercise as “embarrassing, disturbing, counter-productive and to a large extent, distracting”.
According to Governor Okorocha, the pro-Biafra protests could not be in the interest of the south-east people but were only sending wrong signals to the rest of Nigerians.
The governor also said that “at the end of the Owerri meeting, the governors and other leaders will take a common position and will also invite the leaders of the pro-Biafra groups for a meeting, to let them know the socio-economic and political implications of their activities, including their demand for sovereignty in a united Nigeria”.
Chief Okorocha insisted that the governors and leaders in the zone could no longer sit and watch the whole situation degenerate, even as he noted that the Igbos as a people cannot afford to have its own kind of Boko Haram.

In Aba, Abia State, members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, yesterday, shut down markets in continuation of its three-day protest march, calling for the release of their detained leader and Director, Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu. The protesters in several groups, with each numbering no fewer than 5,000, marched through Azikiwe, Cemetery, Asa, Faulks, Aba-Owerri and Osisioma Ngwa from where they forcefully closed all the markets in the city.
According to them, the one million protest march was an attempt by the group to draw the attention of the international community to alleged injustice being visited on their leader who had been detained for over two weeks now.
However, security agents including soldiers and policemen were on hand, to ensure that hoodlums did not hijack the protest to loot property.
In Ebonyi, MASSOB, yesterday, said it had mobilized no fewer than 2000 members for a peaceful protest in the state.
In a statement, the factional leader of the group, Uchenna Madu, said in Abakaliki that the body was protesting indiscriminate arrests and detention of its members by the federal government.
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