Security operatives launch fresh manhunt for ringleaders of 2016 Biafra uprising

 Success Damian:

Henry Nnabuihe, one of the suspected masterminds of the Pro-Biafran uprising
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.