Phil Okose, Onitsha

Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, otherwise called Biafra Independence Movement, BIM, reacted Friday to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s comment on secession, saying Obasanjo’s hatred for the İgbos before, during and after the Biafran – Nigeria civil war, was real reason Igbos struggle for secession.

In a swift reaction to Obasanjo’s claim, MASSOB in a statement said the people of South East and South South during the presidential elections in April 1999 had voted for Obasanjo, believing that a president from the South West was better for the İgbos than his rivals from the North.

According to a statement signed by the group’s director of information, Chris Mocha, MASSOB revealed that the leader of MASSOB , Chief Ralph Uwazuruike and Dim Ojukwu played vital roles to ensure that former Eastern region voted massively for Obasanjo.

“When the election was eventually concluded and election results announced in 1999 with Obasanjo declared winner as President, during his appointment as Security Chiefs, he excluded the İgbos to head any of the vital positions in Security architectures in the country.

“During his visit in one of the communities in Bayelsa state, he revealed the conspiracy against the Igbo shortly after the end of the war in 1970, informing them that a defeated people in a war should not raise their heads to rule the same country again until after 200 years.

“This statement was why the Igbo can’t be president of Nigeria.
Obasanjo’s hatred for the people of the South East also worked for him when Gen. Sani Abacha as President haged Ken Saro Wiwa to death in 1997.

“Chief Obasanjo as Nigerian President ordered that a whole town known as Odi, be obliterated till today, the community is left to wallow in abject poverty.

“When MASSOB was later formed by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike to pursue the realization of the State of Biafra through non-violence and non-exodus, the same Obasanjo used some Governors from the South East to gruesomely kill several members of the organization in İmo, Abia and Anambra states, including the floating of 50 dead bodies on Ezu Amansea river.

“MASSOB advised the former President not to cry wolf or symphatize with the precarious condition of the İgbos in Nigeria, adding that a separate Nation for our people with the name Biafra would soon be actualized in a matter of few months from now”, Mocha said.

Mocha explained further that the leader of BİM-MASSOB, Ralph Uwazuruike, had fulfilled our obligations to the United Nations and obeyed their laws and Conventions, Biafrans needed to rejoice because God loves them as He loves the Israelites.