FIFTY-SIX years old Kevin Mbama who
hails from Orlu in Imo State says life has been bad for him ever since he was
arrested for belonging to the Independent people of Biafra (IPOB), a group
calling for a referendum to become independent from Nigeria.
Mbama who spoke
with the media shortly after he was released alongside IPOB
leader Nnamdi Kanu said life as an Igbo man in Nigeria has become nasty,
brutish and short.
“I make shoes for a living and the
name of my company is Capbek Shoes (Nig) Enterprises with an office at E23
Capital Line, Ariaria International Market.
It was a thriving business which I
use to take care of my wife and kids. I commute between the shop at Aba and go
and see my family in Umuahia at weekends. The continuous harassment by the
Nigerian Military, under the directive of the federal government brought a lot
of frustration to so many Igbos. Having witnessed the murder of two of my
uncles, Mbama Ogbeakwu and Mbama Nnodim, 19 and 23 years respectively,
during the Nigerian Civil war, I opted to join IPOB to seek for a referendum to
become independent. If we truly believe in what we say we practice, which is
democracy, why should a particular group of people be silenced through killings
and abductions? As we speak today, we are yet to know the whereabout of
our leader, Nnamdi Kanu. After the raid on his family home, we don’t know if he
is alive of dead,” he said.
Mbama said over a period of five
years, IPOB have continuously staged peaceful protests. “The group got
seriously bruised when Muhammadu Buhari became president in 2016. Ever
since, it has been one form of attack and killing on the Igbo people. This is
a president of the Fulani stock; a people with an agenda to conquer
the entire country and turn us into slaves. It was soldiers of that ethnic
stock that led the onslaught witnessed during the war against my people. With
his coming to power on May 29 , 2015, evidence of such clannish
desires started coming to the fore. Under the guise of looking for feedstock
for their cattle, terrorists masquerading as Fulani herdsmen started attacking
communities in our villages. One of such attacks occurred on November 11,
2015 at Olokoro in Abia State with another happening on of January 3, the
following year, in Ozuitem in Bende. During these attacks, farmlands and crops
were destroyed and lives lost. The non-responsive nature of the military and
the police to the reports of attacks made us become more resolute in our
agitations for a referendum for a sovereign state of Biafra as members of
IPOB,” he said.
He added: “I was arrested twice in
August, 2017, detained without trial for days. We now live in fear for being
killed. Majority of us now operate from underground. My
family house in Isiama Afara is less than half a km away from Kanu’s
house. Three days after our relocation to the village, in the evening of
September 10, 2017, while we were deliberating our presentations to an
already scheduled meeting of the hierarchy of the movement with the governors
of the South-Eastern states scheduled to take place at Enugu on September
15, 2017, and to appraise the outcome of a previous meeting which took place on
August 31, with the same governors, we heard gunshots outside and
everybody ran for cover into various parts of the Palace. The shooting
continued for about 30 minutes. Those who ran into the palace said the shooting
was being carried out by soldiers under the operation python dance 2. Upon an
assessment of the neighbourhoods, we found people with bullet wounds, houses
with bullet holes. In my house, my sitting room walls were riddled with bullets
from the shooting. After this attack, our leader convened another meeting to
contemplate a response. Our media spokesman, Emma Powerful was mandated to
inform the press about the attack and the series of injuries that were
sustained from that attack. We went to Aba, Ngwa High school to be precise for
a rally. The rally was meant to show that the leader was not killed during
the raid and to mobilize support for the struggle. But that was not supposed to
be as information got to us that soldiers were on their way. We went to the
palace and before we knew it, the whole area became a war zone. How I
manage to escape into the bush unhurt that day is still a mystery to
me. Since then, the whereabouts of our leader is yet unknown. I have been
on the run since, becoming a refuge in my own country. Extra-judicial killing
is the order of the day. We appeal to the international community to come to
our rescue and help put a stop to the killings of my people.
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