Security operatives in the country have widened their search for ringleaders of the May 2016 Biafra uprising in which many lives were lost and scores injured.
According to a dependable security source, over a dozen
people believed to have planned the pro-separatist events of May 29 and May 30,
2016 now have fresh warrants of arrest in their names.
Although our source did not readily give us the names of
the suspects, it however filtered from our findings that a certain Henry
Nnabuihe and one Elvis Ebere might have planned the uprisings in a local
church.
The duo are said to have grown up in Npkor, a locality in
Anambra State, although parallel information suggests that they may actually
hail from Uburuekwe village.
We recall that on May 29, 2016, police acted on a tipoff
that Biafra Separatists were planning to commemorate their independence
declared on May 30, 1967. The activists are said to have gathered at the St.
Edmund Catholic Church house in Npkor, where they finalised the programme for
the uprising. Security forces are said to have acted in self-defense, although
many activists died from bullet wounds and teargas stuffing.
Despite the bloody events of that Sunday, some daredevil
separatists stormed the streets on Monday, May 30, 2016 for "Independence
Day" festivities. They unfortunately were met with the firm fist of the
law, with police that had claimed to be monitoring the protests opening fire.
Official information said ten people were killed during
the May 30, 2016 protests marking the anniversary of the country's civil war.
Rights campaigners were quick to rubbish the police report, saying the death
toll was much higher.
Activists seeking a separate state for the Igbo people in
the southeast were commemorating the 49th anniversary of the declaration of an
independent Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967.
Human rights groups have condemned the use of excessive
force on unarmed Biafra activists, especially following news that live rounds
were fired by officers in local hospitals where the injured sought treatment.
Police said officers opened fire on Monday because members
of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement and the Movement for the
Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) shot at security forces
deployed to monitor the rallies - a claim denied by the group.
"We had to deploy our officers to ensure that the
protest was peaceful but we were surprised that the people turned
violent," Delta police spokesman Charles Muka said days after the
killings.
The police spokesman also said "five corpses were
recovered" in Onitsha, while in the capital of neighbouring Delta state,
Asaba, the police said five protesters were killed.
There was also violence in the capitals of Imo, Ebonyi,
Abia and Rivers state, he added.
But IPOB spokesman Anayo Chukwu-Okpara denied that the
group's members had attacked police, and said at least 35 members of the group
were killed in the commercial hub of Onitsha in Anambra state.
It is not known why the Police is bent on arresting those
it claims planned the 2016 protests that turned violent. Officials said to be
working on the case have maintained sealed lips.
