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Crackdown On Massob - Members Flee Homes

P.M. News (Lagos)
NEWS
October 21, 2004
Posted to the web October 22, 2004

By Uba Aham /Enugu
Enugu
Members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra
(MASSOB) across the country are currently on the run following the
determination of the federal government to stamp out their activities.
Operative of the State Security Service (SSS) have raided the organisation's
headquarters at Okwe in Onuimo Local Government Council Area of Imo State,
arresting 11 "Biafran Soldiers" and carting away sensitive documents on the
campaign for the realisation of the Federal Republic of Biafra by the
organisation.
Alex Amaechina, the SSS Director in Imo State told P.M.News in Owerri that the
federal government had resolved to put a stop to what he called the excesses of
MASSOB, describing its activities as subversive. Amaechina said the federal
government did not take MASSOB seriously before 6 August this year when the
organisation successfully directed Ndigbo and fans of Biafra to stay at home.
Thereafter, he said the federal government had decided to crush MASSOB, adding
that Ralph Uwazuruike the MASSOB President would have been arrested if not
because he was alerted he and fled into the bush.
The Okpe headquarters of the organisation, hitherto noted for its bubbling
nature, has become completely deserted.
Before the attack not less than 500 members of the movement used to mass around
the headquarters at any given time. It was the hub of MASSOB activities
nationwide.
Apart from the headquarters, MASSOB's zonal offices in all the major towns and
villages in Igbo land, especially, Aba, Umuahia, Owerri and Abakaliki, Enugu,
Awka, Nnewi, among others, have been deserted by members.
A survey carried out by P.M.News showed that all these offices have been
deserted as members and officers of the organisation have gone underground
following crackdown on them by security operatives.
The Zonal Administrator of MASSOB in Owerri Province, Emeka Duru, who spoke
with P.M.News from his hideout complained that the Nigerian government had laid
siege on offices of the organisation, vowing that they were ready to carry out
their activities while in hiding.
MASSOB's leading lights no longer sleep in their homes.
Indeed, the whereabouts of MASSOB President, Ralph Uwazuruike, remained unclear
as all efforts by P.M.News to speak with him this morning on phone proved
abortive.

   

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