Business activities were halted yesterday afternoon in Onitsha while vehicular movement was minimal as members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) continued protest over the detention of Nnamdi Kanu.
The coordinated protests, which took off from different parts of Anambra State, took residents of Onitsha and traders by surprise when members poured into major roads in their numbers.
Some members took off from the Onitsha–Uli–Owerri Road while others came towards the Ogbunike end of the Onitsha –Enugu Expressway before converging at the Asaba end of the Onitsha Bridge Head causing heavy traffic.
The protesters chanted songs of freedom with the slogan –“No Biafra, no peace.”
Speaking to reporters, National Coordinator of IPOB, Chidiebere Onwudiwe, who was flanked by IPOB’s spokesman, Emma Powerful said, “the protest was as a result of the detention of Kanu and the continued marginalisation of the South East and South South geo-political zones by the Federal Government.
“The protests will continue today in Onitsha and the soldiers, who are asking us to disperse are being funny because we are non-violent and cannot be intimidated.”
Meanwhile, protest by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for the release of Nnamdi Kanu yesterday became bloody at Nnobi, near Nnewi in Idemili South local government area of Anambra State.
Trouble started when protesters went to enforce an earlier stay- at -home order and ran into a group of young men, who were hanging out at a drinking joint along Nnobi-Nnewi Road. The youths, according to a source, were stated to have opposed an order to close the joint by the protesters, which eventually led to a free-for-all. In the ensuing melee, a young man, who was stated to have come into the country just a week ago to take care of his sick mother, died.
“You have seen what these people who are nothing but miscreants have done to our brother. Is it a crime for him to come back to Nigeria to see his mother? Now, they have killed him on the pretence of fighting for Biafra. If they are really sincere, why are they violent about it? Do they expect us to run away from our homes for them to actualise their dreams?” a friend of the deceased asked rhetorically.
Meanwhile, the three days market closure ordered by IPOB witnessed total compliance in the industrial city of Nnewi. Traders, who had earlier partially opened their shops as early as 7.30a.m., hoping that the order would not hold, were forced to close them by IPOB members who monitored the compliance while motorcycles shuttled between Onitsha and Nnewi.
Street traders were not left out. They complied for fear of being attacked.
In a related development, the commercial city of Aba, Abia State was yesterday locked down as over 500, 000 Biafra agitators protested along the streets of the city in solidarity with the director of Radio Biafra and leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who appeared in court in Abuja.
Prior to yesterday’s protest, some members of IPOB were stated to have gone round some markets in the city and announced that shops in Aba should be shut.
As early as 6.00a.m, the protesters, some of who came from Rivers, Bayelsa, Imo and Anambra states, joined their colleagues in Aba and gathered at the National High School on the outskirts of the city from where they marched to the city centre, chanting war songs. By the time the protesters got to the city centre, policemen on duty, particularly those controlling traffic, fled their duty posts, while leaders of the pro-Biafra group took over the duty of traffic control.
All the markets and shops including commercial banks in the city were closed. This is even as some private schools sent back their pupils who had gone to school in the morning citing the announcement made by IPOB members the previous day. The protesters, who stretched about five kilometres, caused gridlock along the route as motorists were forced to use alternative routes. It was hectic entering or leaving Aba when the agitators moved towards Aba/Owerri Road, which was the only route to access the city.
A special group stated to be Biafran soldiers marched in fours at the rear, wearing black attire and singing war songs. A man in the front row carried a symbolic small pot while others bore the Biafra flag and emblem.
As the protesters marched along, residents, who trooped out in their numbers, lined the routes to cheer them, saying it was time Biafra was free. One of the protesters, a 65-year-old man, who stated he was a pastor, stated the actualisation of Biafra was revealed to him in a dream and that he would not relent until Biafra was realised.
Another man stated the protest would continue as far as the Federal Government refuses to release Nnamdi Kanu, stating that there would be another protest on the next adjourned date of his trial.
Five Toyota Hillux vans loaded with policemen, led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for Eziama station and three army vans later arrived but the officers followed the protesters from a distance.