Igbo Group To Drag FG To IJC Over Killings Of Biafra Agitators

An Igbo group, Igbonine Kwezuenu, Monday, announced its plan to drag the federal government to the International Court of Justice as a result of ‘constant killing of Igbo youths, who were clamouring for an independent Biafra Republic’.

Igbonine Kwezuenu stated this in a press release made available to our correspondent in Awka. The document was signed by its national coordinator, Nelson Udeh, and the secretary, Philemon Madu.

According to the statement, “The contemplation to have showdown with the Nigeria Police or, on the alternative, drag them to the International Court of Justice came to us following series of confrontations the police were having with Igbo youths, under the auspices of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), when a good number of the agitators lost their lives.”

While recalling the recent brawl between IPOB members and some security operatives at Emene, Enugu, which occurred on August 23, 2020, leading to deaths of at least four persons, including two operatives of the DSS, the group stated that, “One of such painful incidences happened sometime in 2014 when a group of Igbo youths, who were members of MASSOB, having their peaceful meeting at Nkutaku area of Okpoko, a swampy area of Ogbaru LGA, Anambra State, were invaded by security operatives, and were tear-gassed, manhandled, and some lost their lives after sustaining bullet wounds.

“The leader of the youths, one Mr Lotanna Charles Muoka, a vibrant youth activist, who was a strong advocate of the Igbo emancipation, was declared wanted as a result of the Okpoko incident of 2014.”

Police sources in Awka could not confirm the allegations for lack of records. The Anambra State police public relations officer, SP Haruna Mohammed, was quoted as saying that, “It won’t be out of place for the police to declare an IPOB or a MASSOB member wanted; as might be the case in the alleged 2014 incident, purportedly involving the so-called Lotanna Charles Muoka, since MASSOB and IPOB are proscribed by the federal government, and the proscription is still in force.”