The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra has threatened to embark on worldwide protests, following the arrest of the Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
In a statement on Radio Biafra website early on Sunday, the controversial medium had announced that Kanu had been arrested by the Department of State Services in Lagos on Saturday.
“Nigeria finally plays into the grand strategy of Biafrans,” it added.
Expressing support for Kanu, the National Director of Information, MASSOB, Uchenna Madu, in a statement sent to our correspondent by SMS on Sunday, said the group’s struggle would be incomplete without arrests.
MASSOB, however, added that extra-judicial actions by the Federal Government against Kanu would result in demonstrations by its members across the globe.
The statement read, “Nnamdi Kanu was arrested on Sunday partly in Lagos by the DSS after three days of (his) return to Nigeria. MASSOB condemns the cowardly arrest and detention of the Radio Biafra director but also accepts the fact that it is part of (our) non-violent struggle. No agitation is complete without arrest, detention and prosecution.
“It shapes the mind of the activists, drawing sympathy from the internal and external observers. It also shows that Nnamdi Kanu and Radio Biafra have become forces to be reckoned with in Nigeria.”
MASSOB further claimed that the arrest and detention of Kanu by the DSS would assist “immensely” in reviving the consciousness and sympathy for the actualisation of Biafra which, according to the group, was temporarily halted by Ralph Uwazuruike’s “deviation and lust for wealth.”
Madu added, “This singular arrest will cause more diplomatic harm to Nigeria’s image than good. Before Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest, he had succeeded in rooting the Biafra struggle in about 78 countries, including Biafraland through Radio Biafra, international tours and secret diplomatic build-ups.
“MASSOB warns the Nigerian government to quickly release Nnamdi Kanu now or arraign him in a competent court of justice or face an eruption of a worldwide Biafran demonstration and protest which will endanger the already battered image of Nigeria before the international communities and cause more diplomatic harm to Nigeria.”
