Police Disperse 400 MASSOB Protesters In Onitsha

Fours members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), were allegedly shot on Thursday, as policemen dispersed the movement’s  protest in Onitsha.

Our correspondent learnt some 400 protesting members of the movement were checkmated following the shooting near Ochanja Market Roundabout at about 11:30 a.m.

Ten other members were said to have sustained various degrees of injuries during the incident.

Mr Godwin Aguchima, the Director of Information of the movement, said that they were staging a peaceful protest to condemn the continued detention of their leaders in Kuje Prisons, Abuja, since 2006.

Aguchima said: “Our greatest bitterness is the dumping of an 82-year-old man, Mr Anayo Nwani, who is seriously sick in prison.

“We do not see the reason while someone without arms should be arrested and detained since 2006 without bail,” he said.

He condemned alleged unprofessional action of the police during the protest; adding that the shooting was “wicked and unwarranted”.

Aguchima said: “MASSOB as a non-violent group, will not resort to lawlessness to push home its demands.”

Mr Emeka Chukwuemeka, the police spokesman in Anambra, said that he had yet to be briefed on such an incident.