Biafra Agitation: HIRUWA lashes out at Obasanjo

– Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has been faulted over his recent statement regarding Biafra

– HURIWA has condemned the ex-president’s claim regarding the monetisation of the Biafran struggle

– The human rights group believes Obasanjo is in no position to make such claims

Following his statement that the ongoing agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has been monetised, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has been lashed at by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA).

The rights group faulted the statement recently made by the former president on the monetisation of the ongoing Biafran struggle,  saying Obasnjo had no basis to make such outrageous claims, because he (Obj) is no member of the IPOB or MASSOB.

They say the former Nigerian leader knows nothing of the original ideology behind the movement and when it derailed.

This Day reports that Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the national coordinator of the group, berated Obasanjo in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.

Onwubiko said: “It is only a member that knows what the ideology is. You cannot just speak from outside and people will believe you.

“That is not an authoritative assertion. That is an assertion that cannot be substantiated. The body of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is it registered in Nigeria? It is a body that IPOB registered in a foreign country as the Nigerian government refused to register it.

“I think the best thing is to ask His Excellency, former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, if he is a member of IPOB or MASSOB for him to know the original ideology of IPOB, and for him to know when it has been turned into a money-making venture or when it has derailed.”

In the same vein, Most Rev Dr Emmanuel Chukwuma berated the former president, for what he described as an unguarded outburst on the sensitive issue of Biafra.

Dr Chukwuma said it was nonsensical for Obasanjo to say that the Biafran agitators have commer­cialised the course without him (Obj), an elder statesman prof­fering solutions on how Igbo marginalisation would end.

It would be recalled that Chief Obasanjo, recently urged Nigerians to give up the agitation for Biafran independence, stressing that the agitation had become profit-making, an industry through which some people make money from naive people.