"You can’t stop Biafra groups from agitation, negotiate now – Ohanzeze warns Buhari"

"Igbo apex body, Ohaneze Ndigbo, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led Government to dialogue with members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), and the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) and other agitating groups on South-Eats.

According to the group, genuine and sincere talks were the only way to achieve sustainable peace in the region.

Ohaneze National Treasurer, Hon Darmian Okeke Ogene, told newsmen in Awka, the Anambra capital that Igbo group’s agitation was a right that had been exercised successfully over and over across the globe.

“The suppression of the right and intimidation of harmless agitators could be followed with defiance, which if not well managed may degenerate to catastrophe,” he warned.

Ogene recalled that the agitation followed government’s neglect of the former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s promise of reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation initiated after the 30 months Nigeria/Biafra civil war in 1970.

“The agitation will continue; the youths, especially, believe their future is under threat. They lost their parents during the war, growing up having nobody to carter for them. As such, they have lost all hope of being part of the Nigerian nation,” Ogene said.

He added that Ohaneze Ndigbo had no control on MASSOB, IPOB and others, insisting that every group had the right to agitate as granted by the United Nations charter.

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