Drop charges against Nwazuruike or face women riot; Igbo women threaten Jonathan
Igbo women have warned the Federal Government to drop the treasonable felony charge slammed on the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike or face their anger. The women numbering over 1,000 under the aegis of Ohaneze Ndigbo Women stated their position yesterday at a solidarity visit to the private residence of Nwazuruike in Owerri the Imo State capital chanting solidarity songs and praises in honour of the acclaimed Igbo freedom fighter.
They warned that the 1929 infamous Aba women riot would be a child’s play should the Federal Government go ahead to execute its plan. The women regretted that the MASSOB chief had continued to suffer wanton harassment, arrest, detention and victimisation in his selfless peaceful and non-violent approach to liberate the Igbo nation from suspected planned annihilation in the country.
The spokesperson of the group, Mrs. Mamana Okoro questioned the wisdom and rationale behind the charge against Uwazuruike when such combatant, aggressive and militant groups as the erstwhile Niger Delta militants and the much-dreaded Islamic fundamentalist sect (Boko Haram) never suffered the same fate. Mrs. Okoro who described the MASSOB leader as the second Igbo warlord after the late Ikemba of Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, urged the MASSOB boss to remain unperturbed, focused and undeterred in the midst of his current travail, which she said was a ploy to intimidate the Igbo race into perpetual fear, silence and subjugation.
Also speaking, the first National Vice Chairman of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo (South East), Chief Reuben Okoro, described Uwazuruike as a veritable symbol of Igbo identity. Okoro denounced the continued marginalisation of Ndigbo in the nation’s scheme of things assuring him of the continued support and cooperation of all Igbos in his mission to remedy the injustice and iniquity against his people. Uwazuruike, responding recalled the history of MASSOB and its visions, which he said were anchored on equity, justice and fairness for all. He recalled his sad experience in the hands of the nation’s security agencies but vowed to remain undaunted in his effort to end man’s inhumanity to man in the country.
Uwazuruke, who further disclosed that the then president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 2005 ordered for the arrest of four militia leaders, including Dr. Frederick Fasheun of Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Alhaji Asari Dokubo, Chief Gani Adams of OPC and himself saying that the three others except him had been let off the hook. Present on the occasion include the Imo State Chairman of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Dr. Law Ukaegbu, the state legal adviser of the group, Mrs. Ijeoma Okoro, among others.
Culled from The Sun
No comments:
Post a Comment