BENIN CITY — MEN of the Edo State police command have cracked down on suspected members of the Movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) in Benin City.
Two alleged members of the group, identified as Chinonso and Tony Uzoroma were confirmed to have been arrested by the police but the group’s Chief Provisional Administrator for Edo region, Mr. Rufus Alozie said yesterday that about 20 of his men were missing after Sunday’s raid on them by the police.
He said that MASSOB leaders have combed virtually all the police stations in Benin City but could only locate the duo who the Edo State Police Commissioner, Mr. Paul Ochonu confirmed to Vanguard were in “our custody”. It was learnt that the Command was planning to charge them to court.
Explaining the reasons for the arrest of the MASSOB members who held a thanksgiving service/mobilization rally in Benin City, Sunday, Ochuno stated that they were arrested by the police at the New Benin police division for disturbing public peace and claiming that they were members of an unknown Republic of Biafra.
He said that he initially thought that the men were mentally deranged as they maintained that they were not citizens of Nigeria and did not know why they should be harassed but he found out that they spoke coherently on their belief in the organization.
According to him, “when we searched their homes, we recovered identity cards, maps, badges and calendar showing Biafra and you know that we do not have Biafra here.”
On the allegation that 20 members of the organization were missing, he said he was not aware of that, restating that “we only arrested two and when we see more of them, we will arrest them because MASSOB is illegal.”
The Divisional Police Officer for New Benin who supervised the raid, Mr. Yomi Oladimeji told Vanguard yesterday that it was concerned citizens that alerted policemen about the activities of the Movement, whose members were marching the streets of Benin City, in uniform, proclaiming a state of Biafra and asking people to enlist in their organization.
He said the people were worried as to whether a Biafra Republic had been declared in the country as the members paraded the streets without respect to the laws of the land and that he had no regret in leading his men to arrest them as their action was capable of causing unrest in the state.
Alozie, however, maintained that the Movement did not breach any law and that it started its agitation in 1990.
