As part of Governor Peter Mbah’s efforts to put an end to sit-at-home protests in the state, 67 Biafra separatists were detained in various Enugu State locations and have since been remanded in prison custody.
The State Government allegedly ordered the combined security agencies to put an end to the sit-at-home movement and all Biafra agitations in the state, and five members of the group were also allegedly murdered by these agencies.
According to the report, during the state’s Biafra Day commemoration events on May 29 and 30, members of the pro-Biafra movement were detained in the Eke-Obinagu and Independence Layout areas, respectively.
They were described as being between the ages of 50 and 70, and they included seven females and 60 males.
15 members of the Indigenous People of Biafra made up the separatist group, compared to 52 members of the Biafra Zionist Federation.
The 67 pro-Biafra members were secretly arraigned before an Enugu North Magistrate Court, which ordered their remand prison custody on Friday evening by Police after a security meeting with the new governor of the State, a police officer who did not want his name published told our correspondent on Sunday.
The elderly men and women were arraigned in court at around 6:45 p.m. after the governor, who had been briefed, had approved their transportation, and the presiding magistrate had ordered their transfer to prison custody while the case file was transferred to the department of public prosecution.
Actually, they were detained on May 29 and 30 in the state capital’s Eke-Obinagu and Independence Layout neighborhoods during their purported Biafra Day celebration.
“In the course of the operation, five members were neutralized. They were IPOB members when their camp in Eke-Obinagu was raided. The governor of the state ordered the security agencies to crush anyone who stirs up trouble in the state under the guise of Biafra agitations, and the operation was one of the steps taken to put an end to sit-at-home, the source said.
The pro-Biafra members were brought to the Center on Thursday and Friday, respectively, by 7:18 pm, according to a warder at the Enugu Maximum Custodial Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service.
The members, who were mostly elderly individuals in their 60s and even 70s and who were brought in the night, were documented on Saturday. Some of them claimed that when police and soldiers swooped on them, they had just finished praying for the souls of those who died during the 30 months of the bloody civil war and were on their way home.
“Some had gone to show you that we were finished, but there were no armed individuals present. Is it then offensive that we gathered to pray for the members of our family who perished in the civil war? The government still wages war on the Biafran people rather than designating May 30 as a public holiday to honor those who died from starvation and gunfire. The warder stated that the new governor “wants to demonstrate his unwavering loyalty to those who imposed him on the people of Enugu State.
In the meantime, due to the state’s unauthorized sit-at-home order, Governor Mbah has threatened to close any markets, schools, or transportation facilities that don’t open for business today (Monday).
