An Igbo Socio-Cultural Organisation, Igbonine Kwezuenu, has threatened to drag the Nigeria police to the International Court of Justice, over the alleged constant killing of Igbo youths clamoring for the independent Biafra Republic, as well as having the majority of the youths on the wanted list of the police for no just cause.
Afriupdate learnt that the group disclosed this to newsmen in a statement signed by the national coordinator and national secretary of the group Nelson Udeh and Philemon Madu on Sunday.
The group said: “The contemplation to have a showdown with the Nigerian police or, on the alternative, drag them to the International Court of Justice, came to us following series of confrontations the police were having with Igbo youths, under the auspices of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), when a good number of the agitators lost their lives.
“Just recently, a joint task force confronted IPOB members having their peaceful meeting at Enugu. That confrontation led loss of lives. This is just one of such incidences happening over and over again.
![[FILES] IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu in court](https://www.afriupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Nnamdi-Kanu-in-Court.jpg "IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu fails to regain freedom at Supreme Court 1")
“One of such painful incidences happened sometime in 2014, when group of Igbo youths, who were members of MASSOB, having their peaceful meeting at Nkutaku area of Okpoko, a swampy area of Ogbaru LGA, Anambra State, were invaded by security operatives and were teargassed, manhandled, and some lost their lives after sustaining bullet wounds.
“Leader of the youths, one Mr. Lotanna Charles Muoka, a vibrant youth activist, who was a strong advocate of Igbo emancipation, was declared wanted as a result of the Okpoko incident of 2014.”
“It won’t be out of place for the police to declare IPOB or MASSOB member wanted; as might be the case in the alleged 2014 incident, purportedly involving the so-called Lotanna Charles Muoka; since MASSOB and IPOB are proscribed by the federal government, and the proscription is still in force”.
However, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Haruna Mohammed, when contacted, promised to investigate the matter.
In another report, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Australia, Cyprian Okoye, disclosed that the current agitation over the republic of Biafra would continue as long as the federal government insists on treating Ndigbo as non-members of the country.
He stated that Ndigbo had not been treated fairly, stressing that the abuse faced by its people is exacerbated by the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
Okoye explained that the government had failed to break the IPOB and other Biafra agitators because “we derive strength in the fact that we are already down and a man that is down does not need to fear nor fall. You cannot beat a baby and ask him not to cry. If they have beaten us and deny that we are not members of the same country, it is our duty to cry and I know those who have ears will not let the tears drop from our eyes to be in vain in the end.”
He insisted that the Buhari administration had treated the Igbo with scorn by the level of provocation being carried out by armed herdsmen in parts of the southeast.
“Our people no longer farm and go to their farms for harvest easily. They either farm and have their crops destroyed or end up losing their lives in their farms by marauding herdsmen carrying heavy arms. Yet, it is the same government that retrieved arms from our people but leaving those of herdsmen who also wield such guns openly,” he stated.
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