This year would make it two years since the agitation for the restoration of the sovereignty of the Republic of Biafra by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu
Though the target as gathered was meant for the whole of the five Igbo -speaking eastern states namely; Abia, Imo, Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi but because of the centralized activities of IPOB in Umuahia, which happened to be the residence of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu in Abia state, the military under the code name, ‘Python Dance 2’ stormed Afaraukwu, the hometown of Kanu and the clash began.
According to Kanu’s lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, soldiers surrounded the home of the IPOB leader and there were sporadic gunshots and some IPOB members sustained bullet wounds.
While these were ongoing, there were accusations that the military were hounding members of IPOB in other areas in the south east and as a result, a lot of them including foot soldiers and close confidants of the IPOB leader like Ezenna Johnken Odinaka an Aba based trader, Wilfred Okeke and Festus Nwatu abandoned their homes, businesses and scampered out of town by different means but many were not lucky as they were caught and beaten, tortured and even killed.
Dr. Okezie Ikpeazun the governor of Abia State had to impose a curfew that lasted for days.
Video clips abound in the internet of many of the IPOB members at the receiving end of the brutality of the military.
By the time the dust settled over 80 members of IPOB lay dead with many more injured.
Amnesty International recorded that the shooting of February 9 2016 at Aba National High School which bystanders and pro-Biafra activists filmed from the beginning to the end, shows total disrespect for human rights on the part of the military. The video footage reviewed and verified by Amnesty International shows that soldiers ran into the field and surrounded the pro-Biafra activists who were unarmed and not violent -just singing and dancing. The military acted as they were in combat and took up a couched aiming position and fired live ammunition when the police withdrew.
On February 13, 2016 corpses were discovered in a pit along the Aba – Port Harcourt expressway. And according to local human rights defenders, these were men who were taken away by the military on February 9. Two weeks later their bodies were burned.
Though Mazi Nnamdi Kanu escaped with his parents to the United Kingdom, he is still agitating for the sovereign state of Biafra.
