Miscreants on Biafra protest cart away N12m in cash from Onitsha aluminium company

DAMAGE assessment after yesterday pro-Biafran demonstration in has revealed that valuables worth over N50m (£166,000) were destroyed at the Best Aluminium Manufacturing Company with over N12m (£40,000) cash carted away by hoodlums.

 

For about a month now, Igbo youths have been staging pro-Biafran demonstrations across southeast Nigeria, calling for the recreation of the defunct republic of Biafra. Their protests began following the arrest of Radio Biafra director Nnamdi Kanu who was apprehended by security men following his arrival in the country from the UK.

 

Earlier this week, the protests spread to Onitsha, the commercial hub of Anambra State, where demonstrators brought the city to a standstill. Protesters, who stormed Best Aluminium Manufacturing Company on Anyika Street, Ozala Layout Awada, Onitsha, with various weapons, allegedly carted away N12m worth of cash, burnt two vehicles, destroyed six others and looted computers and generators sets.

 

Best Aluminium's chief executive Chief Pius Nweke, said the hoodlums, numbering about 200, stormed the factory with intent of collecting arms from the policemen on guard. He added that when that failed, they stole and destroyed.

According to Chief Nweke, the protest by pro-Biafra agitators was hijacked by miscreants who forced themselves into the factory and went straight to a new car parked within the premises, poured fuel on it and burnt it along with six other vehicles. He alleged that the hoodlums then went to the cashier’s office and collected N12m and also made away with sets of computers and generators, injuring two members of staff.

For now, normalcy has returned in Onitsha, following Wednesday’s orgy of violence as security operatives are in every part of the city patrolling. Police area commander in charge of Onitsha, Assistant Commissioner of Police Philip Ezekie, said that the city was calm and the Hausa community who ran for cover to various police stations to avoid attacks were safe.

 

He noted that some of the Hausa traders in the Fegge area of the city were evacuated to Asaba for safety. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs has urged Muslims in the country to resist the temptation of retaliating Wednesday’s attack on the central mosque in Onitsha.

 

Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) president Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, absolved his group of any of the violence. He said the Indigenous People of Biafra and the Uchenna Madu-led faction of Massob should be held responsible for the protests that caused the deaths of five people and the destruction of property.