MASSOB: UWAZURUIKE HAS MISLED IGBO YOUTHS, - SAYS UMEH

MASSOB: UWAZURUIKE HAS MISLED IGBO YOUTHS, - SAYS UMEH

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, has strongly criticized leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Mr. Ralpheal Uwazuruike, saying that he has misused and misled many Igbo youths by the manner he has operated the pro-Biafra organization.

Briefing reporters in Enugu yesterday, Umeh who said he has always been moved to tears each time he saw those patriotic Igbo youths “who have been misused by Raph Uwazuruike who traded on their emotion and sentiments for justice for the Igbo nation”, nonetheless, made a passionate appeal to the Federal Government to rehabilitate them through the amnesty programme.

He said: “It is on record that the corpses of many MASSOB youths are still littered all over the mortuaries in South East Nigeria up till this moment. The youths have since protested against the way they have been used by their leader in the phantom struggle for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra and have already formed what they now call Igbo Ga Dimma Youth Organization.

“The incessant manner these youths are being exposed to danger, arrested and incarcerated in various detention cells across the South East has become a great source of worry. There is an urgent need for the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately set up an amnesty programme for them where they can be rehabilitated with skill acquisition centres set up and employment opportunities created for them.

“What Ndigbo and the Igbo youths have been agitating for over the years is a just Nigeria where equity and fairness will be the basis for dealing with all Nigerians. The ongoing National Conference is already addressing some of these problems. The South East people are participating at the National Conference with a crack squad of eminent responsible leaders which include Professors, Diplomats, Igbo Activists and Elder-Statesmen led by General Ike Nwachukwu strongly canvassing for the rights of the Igbo people at the conference.

“The Amnesty which would resolve the palpable situation among the Igbo youths will also be a signpost towards preparing for general peace in this country. The MASSOB youths will be ready for this amnesty programme with a view to ensuring that peace reigns in Nigeria. I am calling on the Federal Government to solve this problem by taking timely action. The template for this programme will be worked out with the Federal Government.”

He called on the Igbo youths to cooperate with the Igbo delegates to the National Conference for the advancement of the rights of the Igbo people in Nigeria..

Umeh lampooned Uwazuruike, who, he said, while living in opulence had subjected these Igbo youths to miserable living conditions.

According to him, “The various commanders of MASSOB have seen the need to redirect the Igbo youths for meaningful contributions to national development. The National Conference has offered the basis for a new Nigeria that will be sustained through equity and fairness.”

He also urged the Federal Government to release unconditionally all the members of the pro-Biafra groups being held in various detention cells across the country in the spirit of the ongoing national reconciliation, adding that the Federal Government should halt the ongoing prosecution of the members of BZM who were arrested in Enugu and all MASSOB members who are presently standing trial at the various courts in the country in the spirit of the Amnesty.

Umeh said that the Amnesty Programme for MASSOB youths and members of BZM had become imperative as Nigerians are now in search of a peaceful and united country.

He reviewed the situation of the MASSOB youths which he likened to what the Niger Delta militants were undergoing before the Federal Government instituted an amnesty programme for them, and called on the Federal Government “to take this action because the MASSOB youths who had been misused in the past by their leader, have since revolted against the treatment that they had been subjected to over the years.”