50 MASSOB Members Arrested By Police.

Police officers in Owerri, Imo state arrested about 50 members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) over the weekend at the house of their leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike. The Sun reports that the policemen arrived in about 50 vans at the annex housing the Ojukwu Memorial library where work was going on in anticipation of the annual Ojukwu memorial celebration by MASSOB. A member of the group alleged that the police arrested all their members on duty and would have broken into Uwazuruike’s section of the building but were dissuaded by the leader of the police team who said Uwazuruike was away from home. Mr. Sunny Okoroafor who is the assistant national director of the group claimed that the police were there to assassinate their leader as it was difficult to believe they were there for any other reason. He said: “The mission of the Nigeria police who stormed the house of Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, leader of MASSOB at 1:45a. heavily armed was just to assassinate him in order to make the South East ungovernable, which the Nigerian government will use as an excuse to invade the South East. “Armed policemen rounded up our members and also seized about 70 walkie-talkies of those on duty, but no amount of intimidation from the Nigerian authorities can make us abandon the struggle for the actualisation of the Biafra nation.” The Imo state commissioner of police, Mr Taiwo Lakanu said the police only arrested five MASSOb members who he claimed were chanting anti-government songs and protesting. He said nothing was taken from the arrested members as claimed by members of the group. “You know that Uwazuruike and his movement thrive on propaganda. We arrested only five members,who were protesting and chanting inciting songs against the Nigerian government. But if he claims that 50 of his members were arrested, I challenge him to mention their names. Again, it was a blatant lie that the police had seized about 70 walkie-talkies from those arrested, and I can tell you categorically that nothing was taken from them, so it was all a lie,” In a related development, a pro-Biafran rally resulted in tragedy in Onisha when policemen stormed the gathering and killed 9 members of the group.