On Wednesday, Brigadier General Lawrence Fejokwu, Commanding Officer, 14 Brigade of Nigerian Army announced the relocation of its tactical command headquarters from Ohafia to Aba, the commercial capital of Abia State. His reason? The need to protect lives and property in the city in view of the political agitations by pro-Biafra protesters. In plain language, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) protesters have worsened the insecurity in the city engendered by kidnapping, other crimes.
Coincidentally, the same day, in Imo State Government House, Owerri, Governor Rochas Okorocha reconciled the warring factions of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo. Henceforth, Dr Ralph Obioha and his factional supporters recognised Chief Enwo-Igariwey as the President-General of the organisation and vowed to support him to succeed.
The timeliness of the arrival of this organisation at the apex of Igbo society calls for cheers. We congratulate the two factions for sinking their differences in order to promote the welfare and advancement of Ndi-Igbo at a time when they are needed most. Hence our praises for the efforts Governor Okorocha put in to make the factions see the overarching importance of restoring peace and unity in Ohanaeze. For, by coincidence, we believe Ohaneze is the unified organisation with the clout to spearhead convincing the agitating youth to see the futility of their Biafra quest at this time – or any other in future.
For, what General Fejokwu barely masked were the alarm bells triggered by IPOB and MASSOB leaders’ penultimate Wednesday declaration of their “activated self-defence.” The youth may arm themselves with weapons of questionable sophistication to confront in reprisal, the well-armed professional Army and police force because the latter shot dead in cold blood more than 1,000 unarmed protesters exercising their democratic right to peaceful street protests.
General Fejokwu assured the agitators of adequate protection of their lives and property, as all other law-abiding residents of the city, if they jettison violence and embrace peace. Conciliatory as his tone was, the threat was the squall before the storm. IPOB and MASSOB protesters must avert confrontation with the army. For, after spilling the blood of 1,000 members, which triggered the self-defence activation, nobody would like to hear of more innocent blood being spilt in Igboland henceforth. Indeed, the prompt relocation of the brigade to Aba should not be misconstrued as oppressive provocation by the youth rather than as deterrent to violence and bloodshed – the shocking discovery of a mass grave of IPOB members by Intersociety notwithstanding.
For, simultaneously, Inspector General of Police Solomon Arase also warned IPOB and MASSOB members not to buy, own, or use illegal weapons in violation of weapons possession laws in their self-defence agenda. Arase ordered Police Zonal AIGs and state CPs to strictly enforce the laws governing illegal possession of firearms. More important, Arase warned the pro-Biafra agitators saying, it is a criminal offence “for a person to have in his possession or under his control any prohibited firearms without licence or permit.”
Penultimate Wednesday, the Directorate of IPOB “fully and totally activated our right to self-defence” as enshrined in the relevant acts and declarations of United Nations with effect from that day, February 10.”
The cause of the recourse to self-help by the protesting youth took place on Tuesday, the previous day. They had gathered at their usual National High School assembly point in Aba, and began their prayers preparatory to their procession. The police were called in with wrong information that they were harassing students. The police found it was false alarm. The officers stayed back to forestall breakdown of law and order. A military patrol van arrived later and the soldiers went straight to arrest the Aba Coordinator of IPOB and five of his henchmen. The other members resisted the arrest. The soldiers opened fire, pandemonium ensued. At the end of the melee, 22 protesters died. The police said two died and they arrested 20. The discovery of the corpses in the mass grave purportedly from that venue put a lie to the statistics.
Everyone knows the start of the drums of war. But nobody ever knows when a war will end, if ever. Hence our urgent appeal to Ohaneze’s Chief Igariwey and other opinion, political, cultural and religious leaders to step in to diffuse the looming spectre of war and its consequent catastrophic descent into anarchy, chaos, killings and misery for the hapless in Igboland. Former Anambra State governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife appropriately labelled any premature confrontation with the armed soldiers as suicidal. We agree with him.
We certainly denounce the senseless killing of unarmed protesters by the security agencies. Hence our reiteration of the call for non-lethal amunition to quell civil disobedience. Whether the casualty figure of 1,000 dead is accurate or not is immaterial. One death should have been too many in a democracy. On the contrary, we commend the prompt response of the government for deploying 14 Brigade to Aba, for its deterrent effect to outbreak of violence; at the same time, it smacks of intimidation to bypass the anti-riot Mobile Police force to deploy soldiers.
It is futile to use force to hope to achieve peace. In a democracy, it is coercion which no democrat tolerates. The mishandling of the Boko Haram grievances, especially after the extra-judicial murder of their leader, Mohammed Yusuf, escalated the crisis into the monstrous insurgency it is today, seven years later. Nearly 20,000 are dead and 2.6 million displaced. Olusegun Obasanjo’s failed militarisation of Niger Delta militancy left the problems intact even after he razed Odi and Zaki Biam in Bayelsa and Taraba states.
Now in Aba, tension continues to mount with the young ones who have never seen the brutalities of war laying claims of preparedness to fight the security agents. Wise counsel should warn the youth that nobody derives any benefit from the anarchy of war. Ohaneze leaders, welcome to the growing tension about the potential confrontation with the army. We rather recommend a political solution than a predictable military chaos. Your new-found unity will provide the rallying call to spearhead diffusion of the tension engulfing Igboland, riding on the resentment of the dead in the mass grave. We hope Ohaneze will douse the tension, restore peace and advance the Igbo project – but not supervise Igboland’s destruction with an unnecessary insurgency.
Welcome, Ohaneze!