While awaiting the D-day for the formal hoist their national flag, the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has condemned the Commissioner, Abia State Police Command, Ambrose Aisabor, over his recent comment about the group, saying he has no powers to stop them from operating.
Aisabor, had while addressing officers and men of Ndiegoro police division, during his maiden visit to the area, stated that no Nigerian law supported the existence of groups such as MASSOB and directed his men not to allow any member in any part of the state hoist Biafran flags or operate, as such was illegal.
However, the MASSOB Director of Information for Aba region, Sunny Okereafor, said the police commissioner had no powers to stop the activities of the organization in the state, including the hoisting of the flag.
While describing MASSOB as a non-violent group, which shouldn’t have been the major problem of the commissioner, Okereafor said that the flag is the symbol of the Igbo race, which the organization would continue to hoist not only in Abia State but in all Igbo territories.
He challenged Aisabor to channel his energy to fighting crimes such as kidnapping, child theft and trafficking, which he said are now assuming a higher proportion in Aba, the commercial hub of the state, and its environs.
Okereafor said it was unfortunate that it is only in Igboland where such directives were given, asking: “Have the police in the West stopped OPC from operating? Have they stopped Egbesu and other groups in the South-South from operating? Why MASSOB? “What’s this man up to?
“Aisabor is not the only police commissioner to have been posted to Abia State nor the only one in states where MASSOB exists, why is he giving directives that will not be in anybody’s interest?”
The MASSOB spokesman urged his members to remain calm in the face of the threat, advising them not to be intimidated into abandoning the cause for which many of them had paid the supreme price and which he said was the last hope of the Igbo man.