No fewer than seven persons have been confirmed dead following protest by members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), in Asaba, Delta State on Monday.
The Acting Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), in Delta, SP Charles Muka, who confirmed this in a statement, added that the police recorded two casualties.
Freedom Online learned that the MASSOB members were protesting against security agents for attempting to prevent them from marking the 49th anniversary of the birth of Biafra.
Muka said in the statement that five members of MASSOB were killed by military officers who had confrontations with the group along the Asaba-Onitsha Expressway in Asaba.
It stated that the military arrested and brought eight members of MASSOB to the police and “are now in custody in Asaba.’’
According to him, the protesters turned violent and attacked the policemen deployed to monitor the protest, killed two and injured two others.
“We had to deploy our officers to ensure that the protest was peaceful but we were surprised that the people turned violent.
“To our surprise, they started attacking our men and at Okwe Junction in Abraka area of Asaba, the group killed a police corporal and took his AK47 rifle.
“Also along the Dennis Osadeby Way in Asaba, they wounded a police officer and took his anti-riot gun.
“This group also attacked and wounded two policemen, suspected to be marine police, and threw them into the River Niger at Cable Point in Asaba and in the process one died and one was rescued.
“This brings the casualty number to two with two others injured on the side of the police.
“The protesters also attacked military vehicles along the Asaba-Onitsha Expressway which left four members of the group dead and eight others arrested and brought to the police headquarters.”
It added that a pregnant woman was hit by a stray bullet during the fracas but now receiving treatment at the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba.
The statement advised parents and guardians to warn their children and wards to follow the part of peace and pursue their agenda constitutionally.
An eyewitness, Mr Uche Okelue, said that the fracas broke out after a police team threw teargas at the marchers in an effort to disperse them.
“The police used teargas on the MASSOB people as they were protesting along Anwai Road this morning, so the people got angry and attacked the policemen with knives and broken bottles.
“They caught one policeman, beat him up before stabbing him to death; it was a fierce confrontation as everyone ran in different directions,” Okelue said.
Another eyewitness, Mr Ben Onwordi, said there was another fight between the police and MASSOB members at the popular Mammy Market Junction on Nnebisi Road, Asaba.
“As the group were protesting, the police patrol vehicle came behind them and tried to disperse them but the MASSOB people resisted and in the process, they clashed and many people were injured.
“The MASSOB people damaged the police patrol vehicle, vandalising the windscreen and doors before all of them fled into different directions,” Onwordi said.
Another clash occurred at the River Niger Bridge on the border between Delta and Anambra states when some MASSOB members tried to conduct a similar rally.
Meanwhile, the police in Owerri, Imo State on Monday arrested some 17 members of MASSOB for holding a road show in commemoration of 49th anniversary of Biafra.
The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Andrew Enwerem, who confirmed the arrests, said those arrested would be prosecuted.
The MASSOB members began the march at Waterside Primary School, Owerri, from where they moved to Rotibi Street to Oguamana Street before linking Douglas Road.
At Douglas Road, the marchers met heavily armed security men, who threw teargas at them at Ama JK end of the street and arrested some.
Mr Okechukwu Nwogu, a leader of MASSOB, said it was regrettable that the police arrested members of the group who were on a peaceful march to commemorate the 49th anniversary of Biafra and 17th anniversary of MASSOB.
“What the Nigerian government is doing to us is very unfair; MASSOB is a non-violent group moving without arms in remembrance of our history.
`Nwogu called on Igbo leaders to come out and speak for Igbo people being unjustly treated by security forces.
Earlier, Chief Canice Anojuru, the spokesman for MASSOB in Owerri zone, said the group decided to hold the road show to awaken the consciousness of the people of the defunct Biafra.
Anojuru said the road show was to draw the attention of international community to the plight of Biafra people.
He added that the group had achieved a lot, despite obvious challenges.
On the recent invasion of Nimbo community in Enugu State by suspected Fulani herdsmen, the group advised the people of South-East to be more vigilant to forestall future attacks in the area.
“As a group, we frown at the rate at which human beings were killed and maimed, farmlands destroyed, women raped, and buildings razed by these Fulani herdsmen.
“We are calling on all people of South-East area to be more vigilant and extra careful over this recent development,’’ Anojuru said.
The group advised people of the area to be careful in engaging people whose identity were not clear to them as security men, gardeners and house-keepers.
