By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Protest has erupted in Onitsha after soldiers allegedly manhandled Nollywood actor, Chiwetalu Agu, for wearing an outfit made from the rising sun of the Biafran flag, a costume that makes President Muhammadu Buhari’s led-federal-government feeling paranoid.
In a video that has gone viral on social media, soldiers were seen pummeling a man believed to be Agu, a comic actor, and forcefully dragging him to a waiting van.
The incident has also triggered protests in Onitsha, according to videos being circulated on Twitter, a microblogging App that Buhari’s led government has banned, but undeterred users still access it via Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Agu has appeared on several photographs with the Biafran costume, an outfit that has not been banned by any Nigerian law but which triggers hysteria among security operatives who are desperate to please President Buhari.
Buhari has shown disdain for any agitation for self-determination, especially from the Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). His police chief even gave a shoot at sight order for the agitators. “Don’t mind the media shout; do the job I command you. If anyone accuses you of human rights violation, the report will come to my table and you know what I will do. So, take the battle to them wherever they are and kill them all. Don’t wait for an order,” he said in March this year.
