Enugu Clash: MASSOB leader warns DSS, other security agencies over intimidation, harassment of pro-Biafra group
By Blessing Ajah/Enugu
The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, (MASSOB) which has condemned the alleged killings of members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in clash on Sunday by operatives of the Department of State Services, (DSS) and the Police, has warned them and other security agencies to leave them alone.
No fewer than 10 persons were reportedly killed in the clash which left residents of Emene in Enugu East Local Government Area, Enugu State, and it’s environs in confusion.
According to eyewitnesses, the clash began around 7am in the morning when some DSS operatives and police men stormed the Practicing School Emene, where IPOB members were having their Jewish prayers, and began to arrest them.
Attempts IPOB members to resist arrest by the security operatives, resulted in shooting by the operatives, which left an IPOB member dead and others badly injured.
The IPOB members seeing their colleagues in a pool of their own blood, were said to have immediately attacked back and killed two DSS operatives and two policesmen.
However, controversy trails the actual figure of casualties recorded during the clash. While IPOB claims that 21 of its members were killed and 47 arrested, the police say only two members of IPOB were killed.
The Police also claim that IPOB killed two DSS operatives and two others, adding that they have also rescued one of the kidnapped DSS operatives.
Reacting to the development, MASSOB leader Uchenna Madu, decried what he said was the alarming rate at which security agents shoot and kill pro Biafra agitators for simply going about their activities peacefully.
He advised the security operatives to use their powers and weapons to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the north and Fulani Herdsmen rather than attacking civilians who do not have weapons on them.
He said: “It is well known that pro Biafra groups do not carry weapons yet they will use guns on our people and they can’t do the same to Fulani herdsmen who have been terrorising our people even in Enugu.”
He lashed out at Governors of the Southeast for what he described as their indifference to the killings by herdsmen
“Our people have been killed and maimed and the South East Governors are not saying anything,” he said.
The MASSOB leader warned security operatives to leave pro-Biafra groups alone noting that “any harm done to any pro Biafra group is an attack on all of us in the struggle”.
“Look at the IPOB members they paraded in Enugu, they did not have any weapon on them yet the Police opened fire on them killing as many as they wanted just because they were holding meeting. Why can’t they use that force and go flush out Boko Haram in the North, ” he stated.
He said the “Enugu massacre is a step too far and the leaders of pro Biafra group will meet and take a far reaching decision on it.”
