Buhari says he will not tolerate Biafra as over 2m died the last time it was attempted

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has finally responded to the ongoing agitation to create a breakaway republic of Biafra in southeast Nigeria saying that his government will not tolerate the balkanisation of the country as over 2m died the last time it was tried.

 

Since October last year when Radio Biafra director Nnamdi Kanu was arrested, campaigners calling for the resuscitation of the defunct republic of Biafra have stepped up their calls for the creation of an independent nation. They have organised marches and demonstrations across Igboland, calling for the unconditional release of Mr Kanu among other things.

 

President Buhari recalled that over 2m lives were lost during the Nigeria civil war between 1967 to 1970 that resulted from the demand for Biafra. Himself a civil war commander, President Buhari said the death toll from the last civil war was too high for Nigeria to go through that experience again.

 

He said: “At least 2m Nigerians were killed in the Biafra war. So, for somebody to wake up, may be they weren’t born then, looking for Biafra after 2m people were killed, they are joking with the security and Nigeria won’t tolerate Biafra.”

 

Meanwhile, the South-East Based Coalition of Human Rights Organisations (SBCHRO), has accused security forces  of killing 80 members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) and their supporters between August 30, 2015 and February 9, 2016.  Also, the coalition estimated that those maimed totalled170, just as it put the total number of those  arrested, detained, charged or kept in captivity without trial at 400.

 

In the concluding part of its letter to the chief of the defence staff, General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin and the minister of interior, General Abdulrahman Dambazzau, they complained about the actions of the security forces.  Their letter titled Ceaseless Killings Of Unarmed Citizens In Nigeria: Why Security Chiefs Must Desist From Provoking More Insurgencies Capable Of Plunging Nigeria Into Syrian Style (Concluding Part), SBCHRO alleged that the  army, police and navy specifically killed 22 Ipob members on February 9, 2016.

 

According to SBCHRO, the killings took place in the compound of the National High School in Aba, Abia State, over 30 were maimed and 13 were murdered and their bodies dumped inside a pit along Aba-Port Harcourt Road. Also, the group added that the army was responsible for 60% of the killings, police 30% and others including the navy, 10% of the deaths.

 

Their letter was copied  to the United Nations secretary general and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, among others. President Buhari is yet to formally respond to the letter.