The leadership of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has joined other Nigerians condemned the attack on Senator Ike Ekweremadu by members of the Indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB) which took on Saturday place in Germany.
The body said in a statement issued today that it is disheartening that some groups “have turned the non-violence struggle for the actualization of Biafra state into an abusive and systematic Gestapo against the supposed citizens of Biafra”.
MASSOB in the statement via email signed by its National Director of Information, Comrade Edeson Samuel, said the physical attack on Ekweremadu has sabotaged the Biafra struggle.
The statement reads in part: “MASSOB as a leading figure of current Biafra agitation advises other pro-Biafra groups including IPOB that Igbo political leaders are not the major obstacle of our chances of achieving independence from Nigeria state. The major hurdles militating against the freedom of Biafra people from Nigeria is non-cohesion and brotherhood among the leaders of leading pro-Biafra groups. The tendency of superiority complex on ideology and the spirit of lordship over others are the detrimental tendencies grossly affecting the freedom of Biafrans.
Ekweremadu and other perceived and alleged enemies of Biafra are not our major obstacle against Biafra. IPOB can never actualize Biafra alone, neither MASSOB, LNC, BNC, BIM and others operating individually can achieve Biafra alone. Biafra will be more achievable when a strong coalition of MASSOB, IPOB, Lower Niger Congress, BNC, BIM and others from Niger Delta regions are established under a collegiate leadership.
“The tendency of grooming authoritarian leadership under any guise in Igbo land and Biafra in general will never be tolerated because the republican nature of Igbo man does not allow such authoritative and empirical rulership.
“MASSOB also condemns the directives to attack the governors of Southeast. Consciously attacking a governor will never give us Biafra but will continue sending our youths to untimely deaths because every attack on a governor will attract the trigger happy Hausa Fulani security agents in Igbo land to open fire on our defenceless youths. Tomorrow, they will say governors ordered the killings of IPOB members.”
MASSOB apologised to Ekweremadu for the physical assault on his person at Germany during the Igbo traditional ceremony of Iri Ji (New Yam) Festival, urging him to regard it as a family affair between a father and his children.