The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike has reacted to the call by the Onitsha branch of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), urging the Anambra State Government to proscribe MASSOB in the state.
When newsmen ran into the MASSOB leader at the Unizik junction, Awka, on Wednesday, while passing through Awka to Enugu, and sought his reactions to the call by the Onisha NBA branch, that the state government should proscribe MASSOB in the state, he told newsmen that he sympathised with the victims, though not on behalf of MASSOB, and noted that those who attacked the NBA scribe and his wife, definitely could not have been members of MASSOB as vicious attack on people was not part of their struggle.
Chief Uwazuruike challenged the Onitsha NBA to produce evidence of the identities of the attackers if they were sure of their facts, even their photographs or ID cards and whatever proof to show that they were MASSOB members as such proof will help to convince anyone that their allegations were true.
He said that MASSOB administrators at the local, state and national levels often do not spare the rod to deal with any member found culpable in such case, and that if the incident of Onitsha is established as the truth, the officials of the movement will not hesitate to discipline them accordingly, and thereafter forward a report to its national headquarters.
It will be recalled that the Onitsha NBA branch called on the Anambra State Government to proscribe MASSOB, following a recent attack and assault on one of its members, Barrister Onyechi Okoye and his wife, by those suspected to be MASSOB members.
In a communiqué issued at the end of an emergency meeting held immediately after the incident, the branch Chairman, Barrister B. C. Maduechesi, said that the call for MASSOB’s proscription was necessitated by their suspected attack on the secretary of Onitsha NBA and his wife.
He said that the NBA branch would soon embark on a protest to urge the state government and the state House of Assembly to enforce outright ban on MASSOB members, and wondered why the movement has become pronounced in Anambra State than any other state of the South-East.
The Onitsha Chairman of NBA also disclosed that they would channel their grievances to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NBA for onward transmission to President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly for effective clampdown on MASSOB activities in Anambra State.
