SAN FRANCISCO, January 17, (THEWILL) – Tensions are building in South-East, Nigeria, following the threat by the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), to resume protests.
According to reports, the protests which will begin on Monday is designed to lock down the region in protests over the continued detention of Radio Biafra Director, Nnamdi Kanu.
A statement, co-signed by the MASSOB National Director of Information, Samuel Edeson, and IPOB Secretary, Ibem Ugwuoke Ibem, revealed that the groups warned the public to stay at home from tomorrow.
“There will be massive civil disobedience, protests and demonstrations in the South-East and parts of the South-South to force the Federal Government to comply with the court orders,” the statement read.
Kanu, who was arrested by the Department of State Security (DSS), on October 17,2015, on arrival from the United Kingdom, has been in detention even though the Magistrate Court, Wuse 11, and the Federal High Court, Abuja Division had both granted him bail and ordered his release.
Rather than release him, the DSS re-arrested him and re-opened other charges against him.
Reacting, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has ordered security operatives to arrest any pro-Biafra supporter flouting the ban against secessionist protests in any part of the state.
In a statement by his Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr Austin Tam-George, Wike warned that the government will not tolerate any form of pro-Biafra protest in any part of Rivers reiterating the ban on pro-Biafra protests in the state.
Story by David Oputah
