BIAFRA NEWS: Politicians paying to hijack Yoruba nation struggle – Gani Adams begins 7-day curse

 

 BIAFRA NEWS: Politicians paying to hijack Yoruba nation struggle – Gani Adams begins 7-day curse

Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams says well-known politicians in the South-West have infiltrated the struggle for the actualisation of Yoruba nation.

Aare Adams insists the agitation for O’odua Republic is a legitimate right of all Yoruba sons and daughters.

At an O’odua Peoples Congress (OPC) Stakeholders meeting held at the O’odua House in Ikeja, Lagos, Adams called the politicians “betrayers of the Yoruba course for true liberation”.

Adams announced he had commenced 7 days of curse against those instigating crisis in Yoruba land and plotting to scuttle the efforts of O’odua Republic agitators.

“I will continue to curse them repeatedly for seven days because they deserve nothing but the wrath of God and that of the Yoruba ancestors”, he said.

The leader regretted that some of the protagonists of the O’odua Republic are agents being paid to frustrate the liberation movement.

Adams said it was unfortunate that certain influential citizens were determined to weaken the spirit of the genuine secessionists.

“Unfolding events in the last few weeks have shown that some prominent politicians have hijacked the struggle for the actualisation of O’odua Republic.

“It is an attempt to distract us. I want to say here that the struggle to seek a new nation is our legitimate right that we are determined to live and die for and we wouldn’t waiver in our beliefs and determination to liberate our race.

“First, we must show enough diplomacy. Second, we must be conscious of how we generate our information and intelligent- gathering and I will surely keep the third to myself”

“We should be diplomatic enough while addressing issues, we should work on the way we gather our Intelligent reports, and we must be consistent in our quest for total freedom.

“As the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, I have put in close to three decades’ experience in the struggle and I know what it takes to win a struggle of this nature.

“For those who have been infiltrating the struggle, I will curse them for seven days. The whole thing is targeted at soiling my name and that of other Obas in Yorubaland. Nothing good will come out of their attempt”, Adams added

BIAFRA NEWS : UTME required for admission into academy – NDA

 

 

The Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) has announced that the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) is a basic requirement for admission into the academy.

This was made known in a statement by Maj. Bashir Jajira, the NDA Public Relations Officer, on Saturday in Kaduna.

He said the academy had nothing to do with fake news speculating that academy suspended UTME for the incoming members of 73 Regular Course.

Part of the statement read: “The academy wishes to inform the general public that UTME is one of the basic requirements for entry into the academy.

“All interested applicants into the academy must have passed the UTME and attained an acceptable minimum national standard as determined by JAMB annual policy meeting before gaining entry into the 73 Regular Course.”

He advised the general public to ignore any information on social media purporting the suspension of JAMB exam for 73 Regular Course.

BIAFRA NEWS : Army announces new date for NDA passing out parade

 

The Nigerian Army has announced a new date for the passing out parade (POP) for regular recruits.

The event was earlier slated for Saturday, May 22, 2021, but could not be held due to the funeral of Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, the late Chief of Army Staff, and other officers, who died in a plane crash in Kaduna.

Captain Audu Arigu, NDA Assistant Director, Public Relations, in a statement said Attahiru was to attend the POP as the Reviewing Officer/Special Guest of Honour.

The new schedule is 8 a.m on Saturday May 29 at the RSM Hama Kim Parade Ground.

The POP is one of the activities to mark the end of the rigorous training involved in the process of becoming a soldier.

The parade is the climax of recruits’ intensive drilling in the Depot Nigerian Army.

The ceremony showcases the height of military discipline and regimentation.

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

 

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.  THE RESTORATION OF BIAFRA NATION

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.

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.