BIAFRANS SHUT DOWN NNEWI

IPOB shuts down Nnewi for Kanu

• Says Ohanaeze leaders are saboteurs

From David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi and Dom Ekpunobi, Onitsha

Thousands of members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), yesterday, shut down Nnewi, Anambra State in a solidarity protest for the release of Director of Radio Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu. He has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since November.

Members of IPOB mobilised from Onitsha, Asaba, Awka, Ekwulobia, Awka-Etiti, Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi and Abia States and converged on Nnewi for the protest.

One of the commanders, Emeka Onwane said the protest was a warning signal to the Federal Government to make sure that Kanu, who is scheduled to appear in court today, is released without further delay.

Onwane vowed there would be no market today in the South East to further press home the demand for Kalu’s release.

“IPOB is looking up to the international community, including the United States, Russia, France and every other country, excluding Britain which is the enemy of Biafra. We are not talking about Igbo Presidency; we are talking about an independent nation of Biafra. So, we are looking up to world leaders to help us actualise Biafra,” he said.

The protesters moved from St Mary Junction to Nkwo Nnewi market, down to the expressway leading to Nnewi Area Command, through Odumegwu Ojukwu’s residence to Owerri Road, Nkwo Nnewi Triangle and later headed for Awka-Etiti through Nnobi.

In a related development, Igbo Mandate Congress (IMC) and IPOB have described Ohanaeze Ndigbo as saboteurs who are only interested in enriching themselves to the detriment of the Igbo people.

Answering questions from newsmen in Onitsha, Anambra State, IMC Director General, Rev. Obinna Akukwe said: “Left to the federal government, the abandoned infrastructural decay in the South-East would have been worked upon but our problem is that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which claims to represent us, will on presenting our problems to the Federal Government, demand for money and keep their mouth shut after collecting the money.”

Comments

The Sphere

Photograph by Elena Saavedra Buckley. Once when I was about twelve I was walking down the dead-end road in Albuquerque where I grew up, around twilight with a friend. Far beyond the end of the road was a mountain range, and at that time of evening it flattened into a matte indigo wash, like a mural. While kicking down the asphalt we saw a small bright light appear at the top of the peaks, near where we knew radio towers to occasionally emit flashes of red. But this glare, blinding and colorless, grew at an alarming rate. It looked like a single floodlight and then a tight swarm beginning to leak over the edge of the summit. My friend and I became frightened, and as the light poured from the crest, our murmurs turned into screams. We stood there, clutching our heads, screaming. I knew this was the thing that was going to come and get me. It was finally going to show me the horrifying wiring that lay just behind the visible universe and that was inside of me too. And then, a couple se...

A Year in Reading: Daniel Torday

I’ve been on leave from teaching this year, so it’s been a uniquely good 12 months of reading for me, a year when I’ve read for only one reason: fun. Now when I say fun … I’m a book nerd. So I tend to take on “reading projects.” The first was to work toward becoming a Joseph Conrad completist. I’m almost there. I warmed up with critic Maya Jasanoff ’s The Dawn Watch: Conrad in a Global World , which granted me permission to remember the capacious scope of his perspective, his humanistic genius. His masterwork was hard work, but Nostromo belongs on the shelf of both the most important and most difficult of the 20th century. The Secret Agent blew the top of my head off—it’s funny and deeply relevant to our moment, about a terrorist bombing gone horribly wrong. Under Western Eyes is all I got left. 2018 isn’t over yet. But then much fun came in reading whatever, whenever. That started with a heavy dose of Denis Johnson . The new posthumous collection of his short stories, The Lar...

Dressing for Others: Lawrence of Arabia’s Sartorial Statements

Left: T. E. Lawrence; Right: Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) In the southwest Jordanian desert, among the sandstone mountains of Wadi Rum, there is a face carved into a rock. The broad cheeks and wide chin are framed by a Bedouin kuffiyeh headdress and ‘iqal, and beneath the carving, in Arabic, are the words: “Lawrence The Arab 1917.” If you are visiting Wadi Rum with a tour guide, you can expect to be brought to this carving. You may also be shown a spring where Lawrence allegedly bathed, as well as a mountain named after his autobiography, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, whose rock face has been weathered into a shape that does, from some angles, look a little like a series of pillars. I am familiar with the legend of T.E. Lawrence—fluent Arabist, British hero of the Arab Revolt of 1916, troubled lover of the Arab peoples—as well as with the ways the Jordanian tourism industry has capitalized on this legend. Nevertheless, I am still surprised when I hear someone mentio...

TOBI'S DESK

Search This Blog