We’ll make Nigeria ungovernable without referendum – MASSOB

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, on Thursday vowed to make Nigeria ‘ungovernable’; if the Federal Government fails to conduct a referendum in the South-Eastern part of the country.

MASSOB and other pro-Biafran groups, including the Indigenous People of Biafra, are demanding a referendum in the region to enable the people to decide, through voting, whether they wish to secede or remain in Nigeria. 

The Biafran activists claim that majority of people in the region would vote in favour of a separation from Nigeria.

In a statement sent through SMS, which was made available to our correspondent in Enugu, MASSOB said it had concluded plans with other pro-Biafran groups to disrupt governance in the country, if the Federal Government would not conduct the referendum. 

MASSOB National Director of Information, Samuel Edeson, who signed the statement, said the agitators would fight the Federal Government with ‘everything’ at their disposal.

He said the group intended to instigate civil disobedience and ‘sit at home’ strikes, particularly in the South-East and Lagos.

Edeson said, “MASSOB and other pro-Biafran agitators will make Nigeria ungovernable if the Nigerian government failed to conduct a referendum in the eastern part of Nigeria.

“We shall use everything at our disposal to fight the Nigerian government, especially through civil disobedience.

“We are going to call for ‘sit at home’ in all Biafran land and Lagos.”

The MASSOB spokesperson further spoke of plans by the group to drag former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the International Criminal Court for ‘atrocities’ he allegedly committed against ‘Biafrans’ since 1970, as well as other ‘crimes.’

“MASSOB will drag Obasanjo to ICC for all the atrocities he committed against Biafrans since 1970, the massacre of Odi people, the Tiv/Jukun killings, the massacre of MASSOB members in Aba, Okigwe and Onitsha, and the killing of six Igbo traders (Apo six),” Edeson said.

The MASSOB spokesperson added that the secessionists would, very soon, take the demand for the referendum to some foreign embassies in Abuja, including those of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China.

Edeson urged the people of the old Eastern Region, as well as natives of parts of Kogi and Benue states, who the activists believed share in the wish to secede from Nigeria, to come out en masse and rally to press home the demand for the referendum.

According to Edeson, the planned rallies would hold soon, adding that the agitators were ready to go to jail if they were arrested in the course of the exercise.

“The Inspector-General of Police, the Department of State Services, and the Chief of Army Staff should make their prisons wide-open because what happened in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and Syria is going to happen here very soon, because MASSOB would be taking her campaign to the American, British, French, Chinese and Russian embassies in Abuja.

“MASSOB, therefore, calls on all the people of old Eastern Region, Delta, parts of Kogi and Benue states to support the referendum that would soon take place in Biafra land, because our freedom is non-negotiable,” he added.