Kano blasts: MASSOB leader wants Ndigbo to relocate

 The leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike has advised Ndigbo, living in troubled zones in the North to relocate to safe areas in the country if they do not want to return home.

Uwazuruike’s advice followed Monday’s multiple bombings by suspected Boko Haram members in the Sabon Gari area of Kano that is predominantly inhabited by the Igbo in which 20 persons were said to have died.

The MASSOB leader said Tuesday that his advice was informed by his discovery that some Igbo living in the North do not want to leave, noting that those who wanted to return home had done so when he sent buses to fetch them.

He regretted that Boko Haram exponents derive joy in blood-letting instead of finding alternative methods that do not involve killing to pursue their cause.

Uwazuruike said he had already dispatched intelligence officers to Kano to ascertain the casualty figure of the Igbo, in the bomb attack, warning that if they discover that the Igbo were the target, they would “pay back northerners living in the East in their own coin.”

He called on northern leaders living in the East to rise up to advise their people back home as he said MASSOB would not continue to watch Ndigbo being massacred in the North by their kinsmen over issues that were not the fault of the Igbo.

He said he was restrained by the advice the late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu gave him before he died, which was for him to ensure that MASSOB does not quickly resort to violence in protecting the Igbo.

But Uwazuruike said with the way things are in the North, they might have to appease the spirit of the late Ezeigbo Gburugburu and face the insurgents squarely.

His words: “I do not want to do anything that will disturb the spirit of our leader, Ikemba. I promised him that MASSOB will be non-violent and I will lead Ndigbo the way he had instructed me, but the way these insurgents are killing our people in the North is not something we should continue to keep quiet over.

“The other time, I brought out buses to bring back our people, but some of those who have strong affinity with the North are still there. So, these are the category of Ndigbo that I am now appealing to relocate.

“But more importantly, these northern elders and leaders residing in the East should call their people back home to order as their failure to do so would mean they themselves are endangering their stay here because we will not give notice again to retaliate the killing of our people.”

Culled from The Sun