The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has described the National Grazing Reserve Bill as a plot to colonise the eastern part of Nigeria.
MASSOB also said that the bill was targeted at propagating violence in the South-East and labelling the Igbo as criminals.
The National Director of Information for the pro-Biafran group, Mr. Sunday Okereafor, said MASSOB would never support such a bill and cautioned governors and National Assembly members from the geo-political zone not to have anything to do with the bill.
Okereafor, who spoke in a telephone interview with The PUNCH on Wednesday, pointed out that MASSOB remained a non-violent group and called on those traditional rulers and governors who were secretly supporting the grazing bill, to desist from such act.
He said, “We are using this medium to tell the world that we are saying no to the grazing bill. We are saying no to a law that will bring herdsmen here to attack us. MASSOB says no to grazing bill.
“When we need cows, they will bring them to the South-East, and we will buy them; and not that the South-East and the South-South will give them land for their cattle to feed. The grazing bill is another plot to colonise the South-East.
“We know that some traditional rulers and some governors in the South-East are supporting the grazing bill, but we say no to such a thing. We don’t want violence in eastern Nigeria because we are a non-violent group.
“We will continue to fight for Biafra without violence and bloodshed. They want to bring herdsmen here to propagate violence so that they will label us (MASSOB members) criminals and start killing our people. That plan will fail.
“When we did not give herdsmen land, they (herdsmen) attacked and killed our people; what will happen if we give them land where they will stay? MASSOB says no to that. Any governor, senator or House of Representatives’ member, who is a signatory to the grazing bill, will bear the consequences. Let them do the grazing in the North because they have a lot of land there.”
On the recent ruling by the ECOWAS Court that the Federal Government should pay N88bn to victims of Nigeria’s civil war, Okereafor said though he had doubts over the ability of the government to pay such compensation, it would not stop the clamour for Biafra.
