Soldiers invaded our meeting, killed 5, injured 20 —IPOB

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Monday, raised the alarm that soldiers from invaded the venue of their meeting at Okwe Primary School, Oshimili North local government area of Delta state, at about 5.30 pm, and opened fire on their members, killing five people and injuring over 20.

In a statement by its media and publicity secretary, Mr. Emma Powerful, IPOB alleged that some Hausa-Fulani people living in Okwe had informed their brothers in the army that IPOB members were having a meeting in Okwe Primary School and the military officers quickly invaded the place and opened fire on them without interrogating anybody.

“This is another senseless massacre of our members. Does it mean that we do not have freedom to meet and interact with our members? Will the military say we were demonstrating?

Did anybody complain that the IPOB members having the meeting were disturbing the peace of the public?  
“Organizations and community unions have meetings on Sundays.

Why will IPOB members, having a meeting in a public school, be shot? If it is a secret meeting that is aimed at achieving an evil plan, it would have been in a secret place, not in an open compound like a primary school,” the IPOB spokesman said in the statement.

The group vowed that it will never accept the incident, stating: “We must know who the Hausa-Fulani people that gave the information to their military brothers are and who they are working for and what is their motive for giving such information.

They must tell us how many times they have been shot by the military while they were having their meetings.
 “This is another senseless military massacre that we will not accept. We must never take that. Somebody must pay for this.

We will never allow this one go unpunished. We have taken too much of these military senseless massacres.

“We will know if it is only the Hausa-Fulani that are in Nigeria and whether they are the only people that will live in this country.

We will know whether they are the only people that will live, meet and move freely in Nigeria.

We will see to the end of this idiotic massacre. This country does not belong to Hausa-Fulani people only.

“It is time they pay with their own blood, we have warned that nobody should provoke us to carry arms but it seems the time is ripe for that now. We must defend ourselves.”

The Delta state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Andrew Aniamaka, said there was an altercation between some soldiers and Biafra militants, who tried to dispossess a soldier of his rifle at Okwe Central Primary School.

Aniamaka claimed that one of the Biafran militants was killed during an exchange of fire with the soldiers who came to rescue their colleague.