By Cudjoe Kpor
The worst fears are about to be confirmed. An open-ended, indefinite protest marches by unarmed youth till their detained leader is freed from the government’s jail was an evil wind which blows no good. Now, the evil wind is gathering speed into a storm which may rip through the entire Igboland and beyond.
On the contrary, the security agencies were advised that when confronting civilian protesters, non-lethal weapons like water canons, blanks and rubber bullets should be preferred to live ammunition. They also turned deaf.
The first time the peaceful protests turned bloody after the first three weeks was on December 2, last year in Anambra State. At the Onitsha Bridgehead, the protesters decided to block access to all motorists coming into the SouthEast. Nine of the marchers died in the fracas, five on the spot, others elsewhere.
Now, the number of protesters mowed down in cold blood exceeded 1,000 on Tuesday, according to the two major pro-Biafra protest groups – Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).
However, Boko Haram is not yet routed from the NorthEast after seven years of armed hostilities with as many as 17,000 killed and 2.6 million are ekeing out a miserable existence in IDP camps in the North East. The last option President Muhammadu Buhari-led government needs to waste Nigeria’s terribly meagre resources on suppressing another insurgency is to open another flank for it in the South East.
Every democrat knows the unwritten rule too well. Suppressing any group of persons is like holding a cork under water. The second it slips, or you let go of it, it pops up straight to the top. Whether it pops up with a violent splash at the top of the water or it emerges smoothly is a function of the depth from which it arose and the suppressing force at the initial depth. The reason no democrat daydreams about abusing others’ rights as a spectator sport.
In other words, whether or not the hitherto peaceful IPOB and MASSOB protesters will pop up with volcanic fury like the globally known Vesuvius or like harmless, whimpering lambs is a question of the strategic goals of their leadership. But in a globalised world in which small arms and gun-runners come in pairs, a kobo a dozen, anyone underestimates at his peril aggrieved groups’ capacity for violence in reprisal for perceived wrongs. Consequently, this is the time for Nigerian Army and Police High Command to call their men to order and warn them to stop killing the unarmed protesting youths in the South East.
It’s no wonder the pro-Biafra groups have sent a note of warning to the international community not to label them terrorists when the chips are down.
We activate self-defence
On Wednesday, the Directorate of IPOB said it has activated self-defence mode as enshrined in the relevant acts and declarations of United Nations with effect from that day, February 10.
In a statement entitled: “Persistent attacks on Biafrans by Nigerian State: Our rights to self-defence is now activated,” IPOB warned that if Biafrans commence their self-defence, “let no country or world leader attempt to tag us as terrorists because we are not terrorists. Rather, we are fighting for our survival and from being exterminated from the surface of the earth.”
Dr. Clifford Iroanya and Emma Nmezu, its spokesmen, in a joint statement, vowed that they will henceforth defend themselves with everything and anything necessary to avoid the incessant killing of their mothers, fathers and children. “This is the time for all Biafrans to rise and defend themselves. We cannot fold our arms and watch anybody kill us the second time after killing over two million of us in 1968. We have fully and totally activated our rights to self defence,” the statement said.
How it started
On Tuesday, unexpected violence descended in the midst of the unarmed protesters in Aba, Abia State. Different accounts are rendered by the protesters and the police about the cause, and consequences, of the violence which led to 6 deaths, 30 injuries and up to 30 arrests. Now, the alarm bells are sounding loud and clear to all Igbo leaders at all levels. As the unarmed, and until-now non-violent protesters declared “activation of self-defence” mode, matters are taking a wrong turn for the continued peace, harmony and tranquil environment for living, working and recreational activities of all residents of Igboland. Now, the state governments, opinion leaders, traditional rulers and the law-enforcement agencies, particularly the police, must sit up to dowse tension before the gathering tension and hostility spiral out of control.
Two different versions were thrown up about what happened on Tuesday in Aba, the commercial capital of Abia State. The first said, members of IPOB and MASSOB along with supporters and sympathisers gathered at National High School on Port Harcourt Road at about 9am. They were preparing to start their usual peaceful protest march across the city in their ceaseless agitation for the unconditional release from detention of their leader Nnamdi Kanu, Director of Radio Biafra. Just as they were praying for a successful march, a police van with armed officers descended on the area.
The officers came down and took up strategic positions. There was no violence. Soon after, an army truck arrived at the scene and the soldiers went straight to arrest the Aba Coordinator of IPOB, so far identified only as Ikechukwu with some five of his assistants. The protesters would not allow the soldiers to take Ikechukwu away. The soldiers opened fire with live ammunition to clear the humans out of their way. A war zone ensued as far up as Crystal Park Hotel junction. Residents and shop owners quickly locked up and fled. Motorists diverted traffic away from the area in order not to be caught in cross-fire. Some of the agitators took to their heels. Naturally, pandemonium broke out, with the usual tramplings, trippings, injuries and deaths.
The other version said the protesters did not gather at the school peacefully. They were harrassing some students who called the police to come and sack them. The police van arrived with the officers and found it was a false alarm. Whether the same person called in the soldiers was unknown.
When the dust settled, different accounts of the consequences ensued as well. Nobody knew how many deaths resulted from bullet wounds. Only the number of police arrests was accurate at 20. IPOB leaders said 22 of their members were killed in the melee, 20 others were arrested while some 30 of them were injured and hospitalised. Police said 2 unidentified persons were killed and they arrested 20 of them. Media reports put the death toll at 6.
DSP Udeviotu Onyeke, Abia State Police PRO, said two members of the pro-Biafran group were shot dead because the protesters were disturbing students in their school when they were called in. Onyeke said: “Some of our men on patrol got information that the pro-Biafra groups were harassing students. Then, the Aba Area Commander, Mr Peter Wabara ordered the policemen on ground to go there and make them leave the place as the schools were in session. If they had wanted to hold their meeting, they should have found another place in order not to disturb anybody.
“So the police found that the pro-Biafra groups were relatively calm, so the police took up positions to ensure that they did not do any harm. But the soldiers drove in and arrested five of their members and began to take them away. But the group members blocked the way of the military personnel. That was when they started shooting at them.”
Mr Anayo Okpala, Abia State Coordinator of MASSOB, dismissed the police PRO for telling half-truths, stressing that the group has been using the venue for prayers and meetings for many years now. And that as it happened in all Southeast and SouthSouth states, the group members met to pray for the release of IPOB Radio Director Nnamdi Kanu when the police came and later the Army joined them and began to shoot at them.
Okpala said: “From yesterday to this morning, we counted 22 dead persons and many had various degrees of injuries who had either been shot or killed in the stampede, while many are in hospitals. Some died at the prayer ground but some others have died in the hospitals where they were taken to.”
Condemnations
Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) has warned that it would drag the security operatives to the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
Also, Igbo Information Network, a CSO, condemned the killings and accused Nigerian soldiers and police of committing genocide in the South East and warned the security agencies not to “put the nation on fire by the killing of innocent and unarmed citizens.”
Reports from Enugu the same Tuesday said IPOB members gathered in front of the Naira Triangle, their normal assembly point for the “Mother of all protest marches.” The police descended on the venue with tear gas canisters to disperse them. Several were injured. But there was no death.
Still, the death of Aba members triggered the revulsion of the group and the threats of resorting to self-help in protecting their members. Their unconfirmed figure of 1,000 deaths is mind-boggling indeed. Hence the danger of an unarmed group of protesters spiralling into self-defence – as they called it harmlessly.
And that is exactly how insurgency sprouts.
The police confirmed that the scene from hell ensued when the soldiers arrived.
Mr. Emma Powerful, IPOB’s Media and Publicity Officer, warned the police and soldiers to desist from killing its members. “We wonder, what these soldiers and policemen who are killing our innocent members because they embarked on peaceful demonstration to demand the unconditional release of our leader and Director of Radio Biafra Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, are doing in the South East? Their marksmanship is needed in the North East to check the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents who are killing people on daily basis,” he said.
Powerful continued: “The case of our leader has exposed the emptiness of APC government in Nigeria and some ex-presidents of Nigeria who are supporting the extra-judicial killing of harmless IPOB members who have not carried guns or any dangerous weapons for a day.
“If (APC) government were responsible, law abiding, respectful to Nigerian Constitution and the orders of court of competent jurisdiction, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu has no business still being incarcerated. No IPOB member or anybody should be shot while engaging in peaceful protest. But because this is a government of frustrated, confused and power-hungry people who never thought that they will ever lead Nigeria for one day, they use intimidation to shoot people as if they are still in the military era.”
Barely four months after kidnapping the Chibok schoolgirls in 2014, a few Northern Elders had cause to ask the bumbling, incompetent Jonathan government what happened in-between the time their sons formed ragtag Boko Haram protesters to the time they became deadly small armies routing civilians and professional soldiers with consummate ease? Jonathan thought it wise to keep mute over an answer. Let Buhari also not underestimate the Biafran protesters, no matter how utopian their quest.