MASSOB chieftain attributes threat to Nigeria’s democracy to arrest of members
A chieftain of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has noted that the Nigeria’s democracy would remain threatened in the country as long as the federal government continues to arrest and detain its members and those of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for no reasons.
Lamenting the massive arrest and clampdown into prison custody of IPOB members in various prisons in Abia state over the recent clashes with soldiers on the just concluded Operation Python Dance 11 in the south-east, MASSOB stated that a country that preaches peace and unity
should not be associated with such level of treatment on a segment of Nigerians.
Assistant Comptroller general of Prisons for Zone E, Mr. Alloy Uchenwa had confirmed that prison facilities in Abia state had been overstretched by the presence of IPOB members arrested and clamped into various prisons in the wake of the military exercise.
A MASSOB leader in the south-east,Mr Godwin Chukwudi Ugwumgbor, while reacting to reports of the overcrowded prisons in Abia state by the presence of IPOB members, queried the rationale behind their continued detention and called on the federal government to release them.
He stated that the development was dangerous and could impact negatively on the health of the affected inmates, adding that it showed that people were no longer free to expression their displeasure over certain policies of government.
He said: “It really provokes one to anger and tears that people who were arrested for carrying out peaceful demonstration are languishing in various prisons. These are people who never had guns, knives or any weapon of destruction; they were not tagged as criminals but they are kept in the same facility with hardened criminals who are undergoing trials for one offence or the other.
“The implication of this kind of treatment is that they will leave the prisons a terror on the society, because they have mixed with people of questionable character. I really should think that the best way to handle a crisis situation is not to clamp people in prison custody without trial and I call on the government to respect their fundamental rights and grant their release.
“It will also save these facilities which the prison officials have agreed have been overstretched. One thing you must know is that there are no prisons in Nigeria that are not over stretched but when you now add the several persons that were arrested in Abia state over IPOB, you can begin to appreciate what they may be passing through”.
Ugwumgbor also explained that the struggle for Biafra being championed by several agitating groups had not been dimmed, stressing that it was all about the emancipation of eastern region from the clutches that have hindered their development.
He insisted that easterners would continue to struggle and remain on the receiving end as much as the practice of governance in place was sustained, stressing that the hold on to power by a section of the country would always deter progress.
Charles Onyekwere, Enugu
