Over 500 people arrested in Enugu, as Igbos declare the state of Biafra

The police in Enugu on Monday arrested at least 100 people parading themselves as members of the Biafra Zionist Movement, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

The Public Relations Officer of the Enugu State Police Command, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, said in a statement in Enugu on Monday that the people were arrested following a tip off.

Amaraizu said the people, led by one Ben Onwuka, were arrested at Akwata on Agbani Road at 6.45am.

According to him, police recovered 61 Biafran and other flags, 13 berets, three bands and eight registration forms from the group.

 
THE NATION

Nigerian police on Monday arrested 101 alleged members of a secessionist movement based in the country's southeast in the latest such sweep in the region, authorities said.

According to police, the alleged members of the "Biafra Zionist Movement" (BZM) were found in possession of secessionist emblems.

They had staged a march in the city of Enugu, a major town in the southeast, early in the day.

"A magistrates' court in Enugu remanded in prison custody the suspects who were earlier arrested... for illegal assembly," police spokesman Ebere Amaraizu told AFP.

He said that BZM was a faction of the banned Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

They were in possession of 61 Biafran and other flags, 13 berets, three bands and eight registration forms at the time of the arrest, he said.

A resident said that the suspects -- hoisting the flags -- marched through some streets of Enugu.

Residents of southeastern Nigeria seceded from the country in 1967 after massacres of Igbo people, who dominate the region, and formed the nation of Biafra.

A 1967-1970 civil war followed that saw more than one million people die, many from starvation and disease.

Since the war ended, sporadic attempts have been made to revive the Biafra movement, which have led to arrests.

Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka has cautioned the Igbo, particularly those involved in the reported proposal to declare a state of Biafra   to avoid any act of lawlessness capable of generating public disorder in Igboland.

Chief Ezeonwuka, speaking at his office at Oba, said that Ndigbo, at this point in time, are not ready to engage in any act of confrontation with the Federal Government of Nigeria, as, according to him, the Federal Government had a lot of challenges that required everybody’s support.

He also cautioned that the Christmas season, when the people are struggling and hustling to make fortune for Christmas celebration, should not be disrupted.