BY CLIFFORD AMADI
ASABA: The police has intensified the hunt for two pro -Biafra activists who were alleged to be part of the masterminds of the violent protest that rocked the Delta State capital, Asaba and other cities in the Eastern part of Nigeria on May 30, 2016.
The activists, Omolu Arthur Chibueze and Oluchukwu ( aka Fine Boy) are believed in intelligence circle to be the leaders of the Asaba protest
Scores of protesters demanding for the restoration of the Sovereign State of Biafra, including a policeman were killed during the Asaba mayhem
According to the police, intelligence report had revealed that the two pro-Biafra agitators along others run multiple cells of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Aba , Abia state and Asaba in Delta State.
The police says Arthur Chibueze who hails from Ukwuani in the Delta State had earlier been arrested during the previous protests in Aba in Februsry 2016 . He was however granted bail following intervention by human rights lawyers.
The police are probing the violence in Asaba which is not part of the core Eastern states where the agitation for the restoration of the Sovereign State of Biafra is most intense and violent, leading to frequent clashes between pro- Biafra protesters and security operatives.
An Asaba based rights activist, Barrister Jude Eke has accused the police and other security operatives of carrying out extra judicial killings of peaceful pro- Biafra protesters; an accusation which the Federal Government and the military have strenuously denied.
On 24 November,2016, Amnesty International reports that Nigerian security forces killed at least 150 Biafra’s secession peaceful advocates. The rights group also accused the Nigerian military of using live ammunition, with little or no warning to disperse members of the Indigenous People of Biafra’s(IPOB) group between August 2015 and August,2016.
The military and the police have however dismissed the allegations, saying such report was aimed at tarnishing the security forces reputation and undermining the security of the country.
But despite these official denials, there still exist fears of the continuous persecution of pro-Biafra protagonists and their collaborators in Nigeria.
Hundreds of IPOB activists arrested between 2015 and 2016 are still languishing in police custody and military detention camps in the south east of Nigeria while the fate of hundred others presumably missing had not been accounted for by the government.
