Ohanaeze youth council calls for release of MASSOB members held by police

OHANAEZE Youths Council has appealed to President Mohammudu Buhari to order the immediate release of all members of Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra [MASSOB] being detained by the police in parts of the South East states, saying that the group is only agitating against the marginalization of Ndigbo in a non-violent manner.

The President of the Ohaneze Youth Council, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro who made the appeal, also urged President Buhari to include MASSOB in the list of groups the Federal Government is dialoguing with.

According to him, “if the Federal Government was contemplating to dialogue with Boko Haram, a dreaded violent group that unleashed severe havoc on the nation, why can’t it also dialogue with MASSOB, a non-violent group that agitates against the marginalization of their people?”

Isiguzoro however disagreed with the secession agenda of MASSOB, saying that it is better for Ndigbo to remain in Nigeria and fight against their marginalization than separating to form Biafra.

The Ohaneze Youth President who briefed journalists in Umuahia, weekend, on 2015 Igbo Youths Day scheduled to hold today in Umuahia, explained that Igbo would fair better if they remain in Nigeria than seceding.

He said that with 2019 around the corner when an Igbo man is expected to have a shot at the nation’s number one position, the wound of the people would be seen to be healing.

He urged the Federal Government to release all the members of the group being detained in various police commands in the South East, since government is planning to negotiate with Boko Haram and grant amnesty to other militants. Why can’t it extend the amnesty to MASSOB, whose members are non-violent?

On the 2015 Igbo Youth celebration proper, the chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, Dr. Lawrence Dozie, who was at the briefing with Isiguzoro, explained that the occasion would used to canvass for greater unity of Ndigbo.