By Bassey Inyang
Members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra( MASSOB), in Cross River State took to the streets in Ikom,in the central part of the state to mark the seventeenth anniversary of the establishment of the group which is agitating for the creation of a state of Biafra from Nigeria.
The pro-Biafra agitators who thronged Ikom town early in the morning from Ogoja, Ugep, Obubra, Obudu, Abi and other parts of the state, gathered close to the Ikom township stadium before embarking on a peaceful procession through some major streets of the commercial town.
Scores of the MASSOB members dressed in uniforms, and waving flags symbolising Biafra, sang pro-Biafran songs and the Biafran anthem as they marched peacefully during the short street work which took them through Okomo Layout to 4-Corners, about 400 metres from where they took off.
Cross River State Zonal Leader of MASSOB, Samuel Okah, who led the street march said the event marked 17 years of peaceful struggle for the actulisation of Biafra as a nation for the people of the defunct eastern region of Nigeria.
“It has been seventeen years of peaceful agitation by the people of Biafra led by Chief Ralph Uwazurike; and we are making steady progress for the coming to fruition of our efforts which is a clear demonstration of the fact that peaceful efforts get more mileage than violence,”Okah said.
Okah said there was nothing anybody can do to stop the actualisation of the Biafra nation because its time has come.
Okah said it was high time President Muhammadu Buhari people agitating for self rule to go and chat a course for themselves as new nations.
Okah stated that the economic recession which has resulted in the harsh economic situation for individuals and families had been seen long ago by the MASSOB leaders, hence they adopted very austere life styles while awaiting the geo-political fragmentation of Nigeria.
“We in MASSOB do not know if there is anything like hardship or poverty in the land because we have prepared for those things because we saw them coming and when our leader was telling Nigerian government what was coming they did not listen,”he said.
Okah said sending soldiers to occupy the Niger Delta region and the South- east of Nigeria will not deter those agitating for self-determination.
He said the solution lies in allowing those seeking independence to take their destinies in their own hands by going their separate ways.
