Uwazuruike demands release of MASSOB chieftain, son detained by security operatives

 

 

 

By Phil Okose, Onitsha

 

Tension is said to be mounting in Owerri, the Imo State capital,  following the arrest, detention and severe torture allegedly meted out to a chieftain of Uwazuruike-led  Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, otherwise called Biafra Independence Movement, BIM, Chief Chukwuemeka Amadi and his son, Uchechukwu, by the Tiger squad of the Imo State Police  Command.

 

It was gathered  that Chief  Amadi and his son, were arrested last Friday in a midnight raid in his residence at Umuneke Ngor.

 

During the raid, a register containing the names of members belonging to the region, 12 plastic  chairs, handsets, cash worth about  #26,000 were reportedly carted away.

 

Following this development, the leadership of BIM/MASSOB, has assured its members in the state of the safety of the detained regional administrator for Ngor- Okpuala council area, promising that he would return home alive.

 

The MASSOB/BIM leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, who spoke to newsmen in Onitsha, through his Personal Assistant and media aide, Chris Mocha, expressed optimism

that the military/police joint  taskforce drafted to imo state would not harm the duo, father and son.

 

He however, faulted the way and manner Chukwueke and his son were manhandled,  tortured at the  imo state criminal investigation department (statecid) ,Tiger squad, Owerri, which he said could result in their death.

 

Reacting, the wife of the detained member, Mrs Amadi, told newsmen that an Army officer  whispered to her ear to go and remarry a new husband as her husband, Chief Chukwueke would return home   dead.

 

“They won’t kill your husband, BIM/MASSOB  assured  Mrs Amadi of husband’s safety during  a  telephone conversation on Tuesday while dismissing such death rumour in Owerri.

 

“There  are  still men and women  in the force with proven track records more than the bad- eggs.

The force  gathers and write security reports on the activities and modus operandi system  (way of operations) of separatist movements in the state and forwarded same to their heads of department”

 

“Such  reported cases after much diligence  work done  which has to do with thorough interrogation/investigation by the police, the suspect is  either released on bail or charged to court accordingly”‘ he posited.

 

Continuing, Mocha disclosed that the non- violence,  non- exodus philosophy adopted by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has saved the Igbo tribe of eastern Nigeria from another rain that would have befallen the region, insisting  that  non-violence remained the greatest weapon through which the state of Biafra could be achieved without firing a  gunshot.

 

“For this reason, therefore, It will be idiotic for any person or group of persons without verified administrative offices or fixed addresses  to live in the  forest,” he stated.

 

The statement  argued that while some of the hoodlums  were arrested in the forest, Chief Chukwueke Amadi and his son, Uchechukwu were picked up in their Umuneke- Ngor community residence in Ngor -Okpuala Local Government Area of imo state.

 

Mocha while begging for their release to avoid further spread of the death rumour, insisting that the  members of BIM/MASSOB including  Chief Chukwueke Amadi,  are very innocent and harmless members of  a  peaceful organization.

 

He demanded for their immediate  released from custody since they are no threat to Imo State or the Federal Government.