By Chuks Eke
The leadership of Biafra Independence Movement and Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, BIM-MASSOB have condemned in a very strong terms, the police summon extended to its leader, Barr.(Chief) Ralph Uwazuruike, warning that touching him is like touching the tiger on it’s tail, whether awake or asleep.
İn a press statement issued on Sunday and signed by its Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity and Director of information, Mazi Chris Mocha, BIM-MASSOB condemned the recent Police invitation served on Uwazuruike to report at Tiger Base in Owerri on Monday, October 20 to answer to criminal charges bordering on criminal invasion, forgery and wilful damage.
Insisting that such an action of the police is against democratic principles and norms, as well as a violation of Uwazuruike’s fundamental human rights, the pro-Biafra groups maintained that its leader, Uwazuruike who holds a Chieftancy title of Ijele Ndigbo (biggest masquerade in Igbo land), had never committed any offence by volunteering to join a Nationwide ‘peaceful’ protest for the release of the detained leader of indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to warrant such an invitation by the police.
The police summon according to the statement was a ploy to arrest and possibly detain Uwazuruike for no just cause.
Describing Uwazuruike Esq. as a peaceful man who leads a peaceful
organization in Nigeria for the past 26 years and has demonstrated his penchant for peaceful dialogue and respect for the rule of law while advocating for a self-determination for Biafra, BIM-MASSOB further insisted that there is no justification whatsoever for inviting him to report at the Tiger Base in Owerri for questioning.
It would be recalled that Uwazuruike had during the weekend dragged the İmo State Police Command, and seven others to Owerri High Court to enforce his fundamental human rights.
In the suit filed at the High Court Registry, Owerri, Uwazuruike is praying the court to mandate the police to pay him N100 million as damages for tampering with his fundamental human rights and also to restain the respondents from arresting and detaining him over his proposed decision to join the pro-release Kanu nationwide peaceful protest scheduled for October 20.
