A coalition of Pro-Biafra groups have insisted that the recent life sentence passed on the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, would only spur them for a greater agitation.
Addressing a press conference in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Friday, leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) Uchenna Madu on behalf of the groups condemned the sentence, describing it as unconstitutional.
Madu said: “The imprisonment of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in far away Sokoto State will never dampen our spirit or break our resolve to actualise Biafra, but rather, has strengthened us further. We shall continually defend our fatherland and ancestral heritage.
“The leadership of the Coalition of Pro Biafra Organizations, a non violent body that unites various progressive Biafra agitators, activists and groups seeking to uphold the right to self determination, and restore the sovereignty of the indigenous Biafra people through legal, political, and diplomatic methodologies and mechanism will not be deterred.
“The collegiate leadership of the Pro-Biafra organisations totally condemns and rejects the unconstitutional and illegal judicial sentencing proclaimed against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”
Madu claimed that the Nigeria state has deliberately and consciously violated international treaties on Human and People’s Right she is a signatory to as a member of the United Nations and African Union.
“Sentencing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB to life imprisonment will never deter or derail the self determination struggle for the actualisation and restoration of Biafra.
“Therefore, the leadership of the coalition calls for a stronger unity of purpose among all Igbo political activism groups as the journey for political emancipation in Nigeria has intensified.”
Madu added that the “sponsored influx of ISWAP, Boko Haram and Fulani terrorist groups backed by Jihadist leaders of Islamic Northern Nigeria into various parts of Nigeria will always and as usual be resisted and expelled from Biafran Land and territory.”
Other members of the coalition are the Eastern Peoples’ Congress (EPC), Billie Human Rights Initiative (BHRI), Biafra Liberation Council (BLC), Biafra Revolutionary Force (BRF), Biafra Revolutionary Organization (BRO), Biafra Reconciliation (BR) and the Union of Biafra Scientists and Engineers (UBSE) .