They were defiant and in their numbers, enthusiastic agitators for the Sovereign State of Biafra.
It happened in Agbor, Asaba and Onitsha, and some other towns in the East. Their grouse: the continued detention of the Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
This is coming barely weeks after the agitators staged a peaceful protests across major streets of Asaba, Delta State capital seeking the un-conditional release of Mr. Kanu.
The protesters under the name “Indigenous People of Biafra” (IPOB), Delta State chapter started the peaceful march at Agbor and moved to Asaba in a motorcade causing traffic gridlock in the process.
They described the continued detention of Kanu as uncalled for and totally unacceptable, insisting that they were no longer comfortable with the Nigerian government.
On getting to Summit Junction on the Benin-Asaba-Onitsha expressway, security operatives allegedly used tear gas to disperse the protesters and actually arrested some of them.
The protesters were however, denied access into the Government House by security operatives who were on guard. No official of the state government addressed them.
The case was different in Onitsha, one person was confirmed dead, while three others sustained injuries Frida, when more than 30,000, members and supporters of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) took to the streets to protest the continued detention of their leader, Kanu and to press their demand for an independent state of Biafra.
Business activities in the commercial nerve centre of Anambra State were paralysed as major markets and streets were shut down completely while travellers were stranded as vehicular movements from the Onitsha –Asaba end of the Niger Bridge Head was stalled owing to traffic gridlock.
Vehicular movements were also disrupted on the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, Onitsha-Owerri Road, Uga Atani Ogaru Local Government Road, Onitsha Aguleri, Nsugbe, Nkwelle Ezunaka Roads, Old and New Market Roads, Nkpor, Ogidi, Obosi Roads.
Markets in Onitsha and its environs were all shut from 7am to 2.30pm, when some traders were seen loitering around their markets to see if they would be allowed to open, while some decided to go home for the day as they were also afraid that they may be attacked.
The protesters marching in their numbers from the Ogbunike toll gate on the Onitsha –Enugu expressway trooped down to Upper Iweka before proceeding to the Bridge Head section where they were joined by their supporters from Delta State.
Initial attempts by the joint security task force set up by the Anambra State Government comprising soldiers, police, navy and NDLEA who had earlier patrolled major streets in Onitsha on Thursday to stop the protesters failed as tear gas canisters fired into the crowd could not disperse them.
Addressing reporters at the thick of the protest, Mr. Collins Godfrey Okafor, who identified himself as a true son of Igbo land and IPOB commander said that they are holding protest of freedom irrespective of whether the government likes it or not.
He said that they are law-abiding citizens who have decided to press for their rights in a non- violent manner and to say it loud and clear that the continued detention of their leader, Kanu is unacceptable.
Okafor said that the closure of all markets in the state is a sign that the Igbo are one and united, noting that the youths are angry because all the activities of the government are not favourable to them. He said that there is no going back on Biafra since Ndigbo are treated as second class citizens in the country.
Also, in Owerri, Imo State capital, heavy presence of security operatives yesterday stalled the peaceful protest, by the Biafra agitators in solidarity with the continued detention of Kanu
As earlier as 7.30 am, yesterday, the major streets of Owerri were effectively occupied by armed security agents apparently to forestall the peaceful protest.
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
