BIAFRA NEWS : FREEDOM OF BIAFRA . Anguish of the oppressed

 

 

 THE RESTORATION OF BIAFRA NATION

Title: May freedom Sway Swing

Author:    P. E Ukagwu

Reviewer:  Charles Kaye Okoye

Publishers: Book Empire Publishers

A walk through the path of fear

Of palpitations of the heart

Dismay and despondency recreated

A peek into the dungeon- the abyss

The smoldering fires from the ember

That has refused to burn out

A view as fresh tendril emerges

As it grows, fresh, fast

Nourished by the flesh turned waste

Watered by the scarlet fluid

Alas!

Hope can be born.”

Welcome to May Freedom Sway Swing, a collection of poetry written by P. E Ukagwu. It is a long journey through Biafra, a journey through the past, the present, and into the future. The book contains different poems, of distinct subjects but largely related in theme and style.

In taking the readers into the past, the author recreates the memories of the old Biafra. The anguish of the conquered, the fear and trepidation of hearts that attend the oppressor’s March at the homesteads. It also captures the hopelessness and helplessness of the people and the resignation to fate- to death. In the present, Ukagwu is philosophical, and takes a general overview of human subjugation and attendant inhibition by the oppressor. The author still captures the indomitable spirit of the oppressed as seen in Biafra Adorned With Spoils:

O Biafra! You who swell spoil

And are with the spoils

Of a Mother Nature endowed

And adorned – which have chiseled

You are a soil of plunder

By alien kinfolk that suckle

You dry as summer dust

Ukagwu’s poetry collection, May Freedom Sway Swing uses precise language to capture the inherent insensitivity and wickedness of the oppressor on the oppressed; it captures the human propensity to inflict suffering on others.

Traversing 3 clear sections of the past, dealing with the invasion and destruction of the Biafran land; to the present, dealing with the emasculation and subjugation of the Biafrans; and the future, which is a picture of utter hopelessness and despondency, the poems give clear pictures of the travails of a people stifled.

Against Biafrans, marginalization is the order of the day. Brilliant Biafran children are denied admission to federal colleges and universities to favour children elsewhere who get far lower scores. The same scenario plays out, as lamented in the poems, when it comes to federal employments where candidates from the zone are denied opportunities reserved for those from the privileged section of the country, who sadly perform below those denied to favour them.

May Freedom Sway Swing doesn’t see much hope in sight. It however shows that no matter how much it is oppressed, the Biafran spirit is resilient and indomitable. The book urges conscientious and sustained effort toward liberation, mentally and physically.

In Thuggish Nation, Ukagwu decries the bruising and blitzing of a people by those who have the instruments of coercion:

Where harmony and homogeneity

Hone the people and their fate

What nation raises against her

Singular seeds the massacring

machines? And in the last verse of the same poem, the author laments the joy the oppressor derives from inflicting injuries and deaths upon the weak.

To have life from other’s deaths

To quench your power thirst

With others’ running scarlet fluid?

To breathe their resigned oxygen

To build with and upon their ruin?

The poems are presented in free verse, but related in theme and technique. The language of the poem is very rich, and largely esoteric. There is good use of all elements of poetry- repetition, rhyme, rhythm and enjambment. The imageries and symbols help the reader to feel the fears, the tension, the suffering and the hopelessness.

The pervading atmosphere and mood is predominantly that of despondency, albeit with a glimmer of hope no matter how dim.

The sound, due to the author’s exceptional use of rhymes and rhythm, is rhythmic and mellifluously sing-song.

Ukagwu is a Virginian literature extraordinaire, a US Marine war veteran, an Associate member of Academy of American Poets, a member of Poetry Society of Vermont and a member of rights organisations.

 

 

BIAFRA NEWS : My husband sick, dying in police cell –Detained Delta newspaper vendor’s wife

 

The wife of an Asaba-based newspaper vendor, Patrick Onwuaha, popularly known as Ocha, has raised the alarm over his continued detention without stating his offence and despite his deteriorating health condition. MAKE MONEY ONLINE

The vendor was arrested on Thursday, May 13, 2021, by the police while plying his trade on the streets of Asaba, the Delta State capital.

His wife, Ngozi, told our correspondent that Patrick was dying in detection and that the command had denied  access to him.

She said, “We have been going to the police headquarters and the police did not allow even me the wife to see him. They said that the order to arrest him came from above.

“We have gone to the headquarters with a lawyer, but they did not allow our lawyer to see him and they didn’t state his offence. I also went there with the Chairman of the Newspaper Vendors Association, yet they refused. My worry is that my husband is very sick and dying in police custody.”

A source said Patrick might have been arrested for allegedly selling “Biafra newspapers.”

Police detain Delta newspaper vendor in anti-kidnapping cell for one week

Delta newspaper vendors begin strike

When contacted, the acting Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Bright Edafe, said he had yet to get the details of the offence for which the vendor was being held.My husband sick, dying in police cell –Detained Delta newspaper vendor’s wife

He said, “As for him being here, what I told you that I’m aware of is what I know, that the man is with the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and I don’t have details of his case for now.

“I am not aware of the issue of the Biafra paper; I don’t know where they got that information from.”

BIAFRA NEWS : Nigeria Panic spreading as regional security teams prove ineffectual

 

The security crisis in Nigeria is getting progressively worse, and the political disputes between federal and state governments are not helping, writes Africa Confidential.

 The security crisis in Nigeria is getting progressively worse, and the political disputes between federal and state governments are not helping, writes Africa Confidential.

On 11 May, President Muhammadu Buhari called a meeting of the National Security Council of service and intelligence chiefs in  Abuja.

At the same time, the governors of the southern states met in Delta State, demanding “a national dialogue on the security emergency and constitutional restructuring to devolve revenue-raising and security powers from the centre”.

There is an air of panic spreading around the country:

• 128 civil society organisations called for a ‘National Day of Mourning’ on 28 May to protest the rising insecurity and state inaction;
• The Presidency claims to have “unimpeachable evidence” of Nigerian politicians working with foreigners to overthrow Buhari’s administration;
• However, despite calls by some for the military to take over, it has pledged allegiance to the civilian government.

Insecurity across the nation

In the north of the country, Kaduna’s Governor Nasir el Rufai and Benue’s Governor Samuel Ortom “are locked in a bitter exchange of words over who should take the blame for the worsening violence”, say Africa Confidential.

Nigeria: Chad blowback will hurt fight against Boko Haram

Desertification in the north has meant that herders are moving to pastures further south, but they have been infiltrated by criminals who are kidnapping for ransom. The south-west states responded by forming a regional security grouping – ‘Amotekun’ – but this has achieved little.

  Nigeria: Yoruba/Fulani relations at breaking point, as Buhari security promises ring hollow

South-east governors have been less proactive. The separatist group in the region, Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) took matters into their own hands – forming a military wing called the Eastern Security Network (ESN). However, the ESN has been accused of killing policemen and soldiers, as well as arson in police stations and prisons.

In response, the regional governors established ‘Ebube Agu’, meant to provide security in the region. However, Ebube Agu has no legal backing, unlike Amotekun.

Bottom line

It would be hard for regional security outfits to improve the state of the country, as they need to collaborate with the police and other federal agencies.

READ MORE Nigeria: Will insecurity, kidnapping and crime get worse in 2021?

Regional security teams cannot carry arms, and so are unable to have the same effect federal security teams can. However, state governors worry that the federal government is not doing enough to tackle the nationwide insecurity.

 

BIAFRA NEWS : How Nigeria's Police IG, Usman Baba Now Threatens Country's Peace, Unity— Ex-US Ambassador

 

Campbell called on President Muhammadu Buhari to caution the IGP in the interest of national unity, while insisting that Operation Restore Peace launched by the police last week and the military’s clampdown on the IPOB members should be dissuaded by the Presidency in the interest of peace and unity of the country. 

A former US Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, has condemned a directive by the Inspector-General of the Police, Usman Baba, to policemen to clamp down on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and ignore the rules of engagement in the process. 

Campbell called on President Muhammadu Buhari to caution the IGP in the interest of national unity, while insisting that Operation Restore Peace launched by the police last week and the military’s clampdown on the IPOB members should be dissuaded by the Presidency in the interest of peace and unity of the country.John Campbell

The former US ambassador said, “The Nigerian government has launched Operation Restore Peace, designed to destroy the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist group in support of independence for the former breakaway Republic of Biafra, and its security wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN).

“According to Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Baba, the security services are not to be constrained by human rights considerations. In comments reported in the Nigerian media, he said, '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.' 

“'What another order are you waiting for when Mr. President had ordered you to shoot anybody carrying AK-47 rifle? Quote me, even a dead policeman can be tried and dismissed from the force and his family will not get his benefits. So, don’t sit and wait for them to come; take attack to them and don’t lose your arms to criminals.'

“So, the IGP is not only giving the green light to human rights violations, but also promising his protection for those who commit them. In addition, he is threatening those who might hang back with the loss of pension benefits. Usman is implying that he has the full support of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Other reporting alleges that security services are conducting house-to-house searches in Ebonyi, Imo, and Rivers states, all with large Igbo populations. Local people are saying that the security services are rounding up young men and their family members and taking them away for questioning. IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu has dubbed the police initiative 'Operation Massacre Biafrans'. 

“Usman Baba is a northern Muslim from Yobe State—long a Boko Haram stronghold. He is a career police officer. There is nothing in his background that would suggest an understanding of southern and eastern grievances and fears of the 'establishment of a Fulani Caliphate.' 

“Operation Restore Peace and Baba’s rhetoric would seem tailor-made to feed the revived Biafra secessionist movement and general southern and Christian fears of a Fulani-Muslim onslaught against Christians. It should be anticipated that local people will fight back viciously and the security services—as directed by Usman Baba—will respond in kind. It is to be hoped that President Buhari will repudiate Baba’s rhetoric and methods, not least for the sake of the unity of Nigeria.” 

BIAFRA NEWS : How Gunmen Killed Mother Of IPOB Lawyer, Okoroafor 3 Months After He Escaped Assassination

 

Madam Edith was returning from a church vigil and was only five minutes from her residence in Ekiti State when she was ambushed and gunned down. 

 

Gunmen believed to be working for political actors have attacked and shot dead Madam Edith Okoroafor, the mother of a top lawyer of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Barrister Richard Okoroafor, in Ekiti State.

SaharaReporters learnt on Tuesday that Madam Edith was returning from a church vigil and was only five minutes from her residence in Ekiti State when she was ambushed and gunned down.

 

Barrister Chukwuemeka Okoroafor buwanews.com

The IPOB lawyer’s mother was killed last Wednesday.

“Her assailants hid by the corner of her house waiting for her to return from a vigil. At about five minutes’ walk to her house, they shot her dead and escaped. He only sent me a short notice of her interment but hid how she was slain,” a source revealed.

“With grief in my heart but with total submission to God, I formally announce the death of my mother, who died on Wednesday. We shall be burying her in her hometown, Ekerawen in Agharho, Delta State, on Saturday,” the lawyer said in 

 

In the third week of February, there was an assassination attempt on Okoroafor’s life.

The IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, had accused the Nigerian Army of attempting to assassinate Okoroafor. 

Kanu had disclosed that Okoroafor was ambushed by men who came out of a white Hilux truck on Suleja-Bida highway on Thursday and opened fire on his car. 

Okoroafor, a legal counsel for IPOB, was leaving Alpha Military Commando Base in Suleja where he had gone to confirm an intelligence report regarding some Biafran agitators detained by the Nigerian Army, when he was attacked. 

Okoroafor was instrumental to the release of Obigbo women who were secretly abducted and taken to Abuja by the Nigerian Army in Rivers State in November and December 2020.

He had also dragged the former Chief of the Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai (retd.) to the International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands, over allegations of war crimes and extrajudicial killings in the military.

BIAFRA NEWS : IPOB, Ambazonia join forces to push breakup of Nigeria, Cameroon

 

TWO separatist movements pushing for secession in Nigeria and Cameroon have formed an alliance towards actualising their plan to force the breakup of the two countries.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which is agitating for the creation of an independent Biafran nation out of Nigeria, has joined forces with Ambazonia Governing Council, an armed separatist group fighting for the secession of Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West and South-West regions.

IPOB spokesman Emma Powerful confirmed the development on May 25 in an interview with The ICIR.

Powerful disclosed that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu and leader of the Ambazonia Governing Council Cho Ayaba in 2020.

The alliance will push IPOB to another level, Powerful told The ICIR.

The IPOB spokesman noted that the alliance had already gone far in so many things, but he did not provide details.

“Yes, it is true. The alliance will push us to another level, IPOB and Ambazonia signed MOU in October last year and this year, our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Ambazonia leader Dr Cho Ayaba had a joint press briefing and since then, the alliance has gone far in so many things,” he said in response to inquiries by The ICIR.

“We have assembled here today in front of our two peoples to declare our intentions to walk together to ensure collective survival from the brutal annexation that have occurred in our home nations.

“The Ambazonia and Biafra alliance is critical in an area where Nigeria and Cameroon have established two autocracies that have used violence as political tools to suppress our own peoples,” Ayaba said at the event, according to a report by Foreign Policy.

In recent years, IPOB has emerged at the forefront of groups seeking the actualisation of the defunct Biafra, which seceded from Nigeria in 1967, leading to a bloody civil war.

 

The Nigerian federal forces emerged victorious after three years of warfare and Biafra – comprising the South-East and parts of the South-South – remained part of Nigeria, but pro-Biafra agitation has continued over the years and appears to have turned violent in recent times.

The Eastern Security Network (ESN) – a military wing of IPOB which was set up to protect South-East communities from attacks by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen – is being blamed for attacks on federal security formations and establishments in the South-East.

In Cameroon, the Ambazonia Governing Council is one of the prominent armed separatist groups that are seeking to carve out Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West and South-West regions into a breakaway country known as Ambazonia.

The English-speaking part of Cameroon has nursed longstanding grievances over perceived domination and marginalisation by the French-speaking regions of the country.

The Ambazonia movement turned violent in 2016 when government’s security forces cracked down on teachers and lawyers protesting the marginalisation of Anglophone Cameroonians.

In response to the crackdown, armed separatist groups, which were largely funded by English-speaking Cameroonians living abroad, rapidly mobilised against government troops.

The Ambazonia struggle has since led to the displacement of over 700,000 people, and at least 4,000 civilian deaths, according to the United Nations and the International Crisis Group.

 

• IPOB, Ambazonia alliance involves weapon and personnel sharing, joint operations and training bases

The report by Foreign Policy quoted Deputy Defense Chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, the military wing of the Ambazonia Governing Council, Capo Daniel, as saying that the scope of the alliance would include joint operations and training bases.

The two separatist groups would also work together to secure their shared border and ensure an open exchange of weapons and personnel.

• Armed alliance between IPOB, Ambazonia could destabilise West and Central Africa

Daniel admitted in an interview with Foreign Policy that the alliance could destabilise West and Central Africa, with Nigeria being the largest economy in West Africa, and Cameroon, one of the major countries in Central Africa.

But he insisted that ‘Biafrans’ and ‘Ambazonians’ were cornered and had no choice than to fight to defend themselves.

Daniel said, “We have been very careful in our association with the Biafra movement, because we didn’t want to destabilise the region, but we have been cornered.

 

“The Nigerians have failed to act, the international community has failed to act, so we have no other choice but to get into an alliance that can better our chances to defend ourselves.”

Foreign Policy also reported that the Ambazonia Governing Council had promised to share lessons with IPOB on how the group was able to make the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon ‘ungovernable.’

The Foreign Policy report further observed that the alliance between the ‘two increasingly violent groups’ was likely to trigger a heightened response from both Cameroonian and Nigerian armed forces, which already worked together to counter the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern regions of both countries.

Interestingly, Nigeria has, in the past, aided the Cameroonian government in attempts to suppress the Ambazonia secession movement.

• IPOB, Ambazonia have common foe in Fulani herdsmen

Foreign Policy noted that just like IPOB, which considered the Fulani as foes, the ‘Ambazonians’ of the North-West region of Cameroon saw the Fulani as enemy.

Tensions between the Fulani and the ‘Biafrans’ and English-speaking Cameroonians date back decades.

Clashes between nomadic cattle-grazing Fulanis, known locally as Mbororos, and local sedentary farmers over land use, is commom in Cameroon’s North-West region.

According to the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), since 2019, various Ambazonian separatist groups had stolen hundreds of cattle, abducted at least 20 Mbororos and extorted an estimated 10 million Central African Francs ($18,600) in ransom payments, killing an estimated 50 herdsmen, and displacing more than 2,500 more Fulani civilians.

CHRDA also reported that Cameroonian security forces had funneled weapons to the Mbororo communities that had gone on to attack English-speaking farmers.

It was further reported that Fulani fighters, including some who had crossed the border from Nigeria to Cameroon, had been implicated in some of the conflict’s deadliest incidents.

In February 2020, armed Fulani men alongside Cameroonian military personnel attacked Ngarbuh village in the North-West region and killed 21 civilians, including 13 children. In February, armed Fulani raided 18 villages in Nwa subdivision, killing at least 17 people and displacing 4,200 local residents.

Attacks by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen on agrarian communities in Nigeria’s South-East have escalated in recent years, beginning with the ‘Nimbo massacre’ in which about 20 persons were killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen at Ukpabi Nimbo, an agrarian community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, in April 2016.

On March 29, about 25 persons were reportedly killed during an attack by suspected herdsmen at Obegu, a community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

In recent times, Fulani communities in the South-East have also come under reprisal attacks from suspected members of the ESN – the IPOB military wing.

 Foreign Policy noted that there was a big risk that the alliance between IPOB and Ambazonia would ignite cross-border ethnic violence that might have regional consequences.

BIAFRA NEWS : Nigeria, Rising Insecurity Leads to Growing Separatist Calls

 

ABUJA - Escalating insecurity and communal violence in Nigeria appear to be strengthening separatist movements across the country. Among those movements is the Indigenous People of Biafra, a group that advocates an independent state in a part of Nigeria that tried to break away more than 50 years ago.

On a typical Sunday evening, 73-year-old former Biafran fighter Ideyi Obasi sits in front of his shanty home in a low-income housing area of Abuja and sniffs his snuff.

He's grown popular in his area for often talking about his experience fighting the Biafran War in the late 1960s.

He said he has renewed hope for an independent Biafra.

"We used to stay two weeks without food. The only thing they'll give you is ogogoro (dry gin). You'll carry your kits and come out with your water bottle. They'll fill it up with ogogoro, you go there to fight. If you die, it's nobody's business," said Obasi.

Obasi was only 20 years old in 1967 when the civil war started and he got recruited.

The war lasted three years, and the Biafran movement was defeated. He says many of his friends were killed fighting the Nigerian state, but he somehow survived.

Today, he still supports secession, but said fighting must be avoided.

"Don't fight another war, because children will be finished. If they can do it amicably and peacefully,” he said.

In January, the separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB, launched an armed security unit. The aim was to push back on Fulani herders, who are often blamed for communal clashes in the region.

But Nigerian authorities consider the unit as subversive. Troops have cracked down on the armed group in states where it is active.

In 2017, the government banned IPOB’s activities, which are led by British Nigerian activist Nnamdi Kanu.

Some Nigerian political analysts such as Jibrin Ibrahim say IPOB’s demands for independence are unlikely to succeed.

"It's legitimate for them to make demands for separation. But the reality on the ground is that it's difficult for Nigeria to separate. We've been together for over a century. We have intermarried significantly. We have migrated extensively," he said.

In recent months, a Yoruba separatist group has appeared, calling for the creation of an independent state known as the Oduduwa Republic. The republic would include the southwestern parts of the country, including Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos.

Ibrahim said besides the insecurity, political marginalization is to blame for the rise of these separatist movements.

"A lot of Nigerians are very dissatisfied with the political community we have. They feel it is not structured to serve their interests. They feel there's significant levels of marginalization that makes their citizenship ineffective," he said.

Experts predict agitation by these movements will likely increase as the country heads toward elections in 2023. But they say the Nigerian government is unlikely to cede any power to the separatists — and a conflict will be too dangerous to pursue.