Daily Independent Online.
*
Thursday, July 01, 2004.
CLO decries police brutalisation of MASSOB members
By Chukwudi Achife,
Bureau
Chief,
Enugu
The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has
condemned the renewed clampdown on members of the Movement for the
Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) by the police.
CLO’s Director in charge of the South
East zone, Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma, said in a statement that reports across the
country showed that the police were treating members of the MASSOB brutality
and disregarding their fundamental rights.
The organisation noted that the Force
Public Relations Officer Mr. Chris Olakpe, recently confirmed this when he was
reported to have said the police have “swung into action to dislodge the
group”.
Nwanguma noted that the police have often
subjected members of the group to brutal, unprovoked and fatal attacks by.
Specifically, CLO said 14 members of the group who are between 50 and 70 years
old were arrested at Akama Oghe in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Imo State on
their way from their monthly meeting at Okigwe and detained by the police.
H said they were later transferred to the
state Criminal Investigation Department for refusing to pay N5,000 each.
The police, he said, also embarked on a
massive raid of the communities and carried out a house-to-house search for
other members of the movement thus forcing members of the community to flee
their houses for fear of being arrested or harassed by the police.
The CLO director recalled that the police
PRO had also said that 38 members of MASSOB were arrested at Anieke in Ohaukwu
and Ezeanigbo in Effiom local government areas while another four were arrested
in a village near Nnewi in Anambra State, adding that the police had claimed
that various incriminating items ranging from vests and identity cards to
machetes were recovered from them.
MASSOB leaders he said had however
continued to deny any involvement in criminal activities and had consistently
alleged that they were being persecuted on account of their ethnic identity
despite their peaceful approach and philosophy of non-violence in their
activities.
The statement read: “The CLO condemns the harassment
and arrest of people merely for exercising their rights to freedom of
association and peaceful assembly. The CLO is not aware that membership of an
organisation such as MASSOB or holding a membership identity card of such an
organisation constitutes an offence under our laws or any regional or
international instrument.
