Uwazuruike Renames MASSOB, Says Biafra State Cannot Be Achieved Through Violence
SAN FRANCISCO, December 06, (THEWILL) – The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has been renamed Biafra Independent Movement (BIM) by its founder, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, at the Ikemba Ojukwu Memorial library in Owerri, Imo State.
Speaking to journalists on Sunday in Owerri, Uwazuruike decried the violent demonstrations for the actualization of the state of Biafra by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), saying violence will not lead to the actualization of a nation state for the Igbos.
He further apologized to residents of the Southeast and South-South zones over the violent protests by the IPOB, which led to the death of at least four persons, several injuries and the destruction of properties.
“MASSOB was not in any way involved in that demonstration but the only difference was that the former MASSOB Director of Information Uchenna Madu who had been expelled was their spokesman and we sincerely sympathize with the families of those who lost their lives and who were in one way or the other affected in that exercise. It is our obligation to offer this unreserved apology because we were the first to speak of Biafra in Nigeria in 1999,” he said.
Uwazuruike who had earlier addressed a crowd of MASSOB supporters explained that the change in name became necessary following the strange introduction of violence in the struggle to actualize the Sovereign State of Biafra by a faction allegedly sympathetic to Nnamdi Kanu of Radio Biafra, London.
“I recruited Nnamdi Kanu in 1989, when I established Radio Biafra and appointed him the director of the establishment. He started preaching hatred and brainwashing the youths. MASSOB sacked him”, he said.
However, he appealed to the federal government to urgently release Nnamdi Kanu and his colleagues who are currently languishing in detention.
“If you block roads, impede free flow of traffic and force traders to close markets, you are violent and all these are against the non-violence principle of MASSOB”, he said.