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My stand on MASSOB not treason
NKIRU OKEKE, Enugu
IKEMBA
Nnewi Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu yesterday dared the
State Security Services (SSS) to arrest him if in voicing an opinion on the
Movement for Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), he had
committed any treasonable act.
Dim Ojukwu
spoke at his Independence Layout, Enugu residence, when national executives of
All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) led by deputy national chairman, Mr. Maxi
Okwu, who is also the scribe of Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP)
paid him a solidarity visit.
Ojukwu said "I make it very clear that
whoever is planning all these, eventually will take the responsibility for
whatever comes out of it because I have done nothing. I have been very careful
not to do anything. I have a right.
"If they said I support Biafra, how can’t
I? I declared it (Biafra). How can’t I? I ruled it for so many years. It is not
hidden. That I support MASSOB, Why not? It is an opinion. And you said to us
this is a democratic government; well, if these are the problems, okay. If it is
by so doing that I have committed treason or an act of treason, then it is
irresponsible for not arresting me. If anybody has committed treason, arrest
him. Don’t start floting around."
On the recent explanation by the SSS on
why Ojukwu was summoned, he said.
Said he: "I have seen their (SSS)
response. Somebody was writing for the SSS and said so many insulting things,
but I will not treat insult with insult. But beyond that, I have not got the
habit of coming back from Sierra Leone in hand-cuffs, I served in the Nigerian
Army.
Explaining the background to the matter,
Dim Ojukwu recalled that one Mr Duru came to his house last week with an
oral invitation that the SSS Director-General, Col. Kayode Areh (rtd) wanted to
see him in Abuja.
"I was here; suddenly, I was told that a
young man from the SSS would like to see me. With my clear conscience, "I said
"let him come in’ He came in and said his name was Duru, that he came from SSS
and that his director-deneral would like to see me tomorrow. I said ‘okay that’s
fine. Until he then let me know that it was at Abuja. I said that was a little
odd. Just like that! He said ‘yes; so I said ‘okay, do I go by foot, donkey, how
do I go to Abuja?’
"I told him look, let’s get this straight,
if your D-G wants to discuss anything, there are two ways; he can come here at
any time, I will grant him audience, if the matter is so serious that I need to
be arrested, here you are, put hand-cuffs on me and let’s go, there is no middle
course. He said it doesn’t warrant an arrest," Ojukwu stated.
He added: "I said ‘okay, go back and tell
him (D-G) it was not convenient for many reasons. The next thing, they came here
and provided for me a one-way economy ticket for myself and one aide to go to
Abuja. But the one I found amazing in a situation such as this: the ticket was
one way. So I sort of noted and began to take stock. So many people have been
assassinated, killed. One thing goes for all of them; till now, nobody has ever
found the culprit."
Speaking earlier, the National Deputy
Chairman of APGA, Mr. Okwu, had said they came to find out why Ojukwu was being
invited by the SSS.
According to him, "we have read in the
news papers the development, read the reply of the SSS and we believe it is
proper for us to hear from you."
It would be recalled that Ojukwu was set
on collision course with the SSS when he expressed support for MASSOB which has
been opposed to the alleged official marginalisation of Ndigbo in the
nation’s scheme of things.
The SSS regarded Ojukwu’s position
apparently as a threat to national security.
Ojukwu’s position was that since MASSOB’s
stay-at-home order of August 26 this year was effectively complied with in the
South-East, it meant the group’s crusade against anti - Igbo measures since
after the civil war (1967-70) had substance.
Ojukwu, however, added that the emergence of an
independent republic of Biafra, as demanded by MASSOB, was for Nigeria to
determine.
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