…despite decades of pressure, he maintained that MASSOB’s commitment to peaceful agitation remains unshaken.
IMO, NIGERIA – The iNews Times | The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has vowed to sustain its decades-long struggle for an independent Biafran nation, insisting that its campaign will remain strictly non-violent.
In a statement released on Sunday to mark 24 years since the group’s founding on September 13, 1999, MASSOB leader Comrade Uchenna Madu paid tribute to members who, he said, were killed by Nigerian security operatives during peaceful demonstrations.
“Today, as we celebrate our 24th anniversary, we remember our brothers and sisters whose lives were cut short in the hands of Nigeria’s security agents because of Biafra,” Madu said. “They were molested, humiliated and brutally killed, yet they died with brave hearts for the Biafra cause.”
Madu also expressed sympathy to the families of the slain activists.
“The parents of our fallen heroes remain traumatized. Some have died from shock, while others live as mere ghosts of themselves,” he added.
The MASSOB leader reaffirmed that the organisation is “committedly, consistently and uncompromisingly agitating for an independent state of Biafra from Nigeria,” describing Biafra as “the answer to the numerous forms of subjective slavery Nigeria has subjected Ndi Igbo to, political, economic, academic, religious, cultural and social.”
He accused the Nigerian state of failing to build a truly united nation since independence, noting that peace, justice and equity have remained elusive, while the country continues to grapple with “perpetual strife and increasing crises.”
According to Madu, Nigeria’s authorities fear Biafra because it represents “a truth they cannot legitimately counter.”
“Biafra speaks of the truth Nigeria knows they are guilty of, so out of weakness, jittery and fear, Nigeria resorts to repression, persecution, killings and detention of Biafran agitators,” he said.
Despite decades of pressure and the deaths of its members, Madu maintained that MASSOB’s commitment to peaceful agitation remains unshaken.
“MASSOB has resolved that 24 years of our long walk to freedom can never be jeopardized, compromised or corrupted,” he declared.
The anniversary statement underscores the group’s determination to continue its self-determination campaign without violence, even as Nigeria’s political and ethnic tensions persist.
