Biafran protesters disrupt Governor Rochas Okorocha's London Chatham House speech

IMO State governor Rochas Okorocha was subjected to some heckling yesterday when a Biafran protester interrupted a speech he was giving at Chatham House in London castigating him for not supporting the case for secession.

 

Since October last year, Biafran campaigners have been agitating for the creation of the resuscitation of the defunct republic which existed briefly between 1967 and 1970. Governor Okorocha and several Igbo leaders have called on the campaigners to abandon their quest, adding that Ndigbo are better off being part of Nigeria.

 

Yesterday, Governor Okorocha participated in a discussion at Chatham House titled Nigeria's Human Capital and State Education Initiatives: the View from Imo State.  At the event, he discussed the importance of developing Nigeria's human capital as well as his administration’s strategies for addressing social challenges and the role external partners can constructively play in assisting.

 

While he was speaking, one protester stood up waving a Biafra flag interrupting his speech but Governor Okorocha managed to stay composed and asked that the lone protester be allowed to make his point. However, the Biafran activist pushed his luck beyond belief, much to the annoyance of the audience.

 

Looking at each other eyeball-to-eyeball and conversing with the governor in Igbo, the protester insisted he would not sit down nor be quiet, even when the governor said he should be given the front seat and that he would address their concerns during his speech. After constant pleading with him to sit down failed, security men removed the protester from the building.

 

The protester screamed: “Why are you killing our people? The killings of our people cannot continue.”

 

Although the governor’s aides and Chatham House staff managed to get him out of the hall, another protester, who was inches away from the governor stood up, insisting he wanted to speak too. When he failed to sit down, he was also removed from the building.

 

Meanwhile, civil servants in Imo State will only get 70% of their January salary, according to a formula put together by the 18-man joint committee comprising the government and labour unions. Comrade Austin Chilakpu, the state chairman of Nigerian Labour Congress, announced in Owerri yesterday, that a deal had been reached between both sides.