Uche Nwosu's Government Abduction Has Exonerated IPOB/ESN From Any Complicity

 Uche Nwosu's Government Abduction Has Exonerated IPOB/ESN From Any Complicity

Uche Nwosu

On Sunday 26th of December 2021, Mr. Uche Nwosu, former deputy chief of staff in Imo State Government, was abducted murderously abducted by security agencies while observing church service at St Peter’s Anglican Church Umunwokwe Village Eziama-Obaire Nkwerre LGA Imo state.  This was ordered by the State Governor. In Nigeria, politicians can employ any means in an effort to subdue or even eliminate their conceived political opponents. Sometimes, in the process of the abduction, properties will be destroyed and innocent civilians, brazenly murdered in some cases. When these are routinely carried out, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security Network (ESN), will be blamed for such government atrocious acts. This is the trend orchestrated to demonize the Biafra restoration struggle and agitators.

These politicians secretly fight against themselves, using the poor, innocent masses as their shield of defence, thereby resulting in the reckless killing of the people. These dare-devil politicians could go to any length to unleash terror just for nothing else but to actualize their selfish political ambitions. Though they belong to different polutical divides (parties), but they totally detest and despise one another so much so that they engage in brutal battles, thereby creating avoidable fears and tension in the society. The Eastern Security Network (ESN) personnel were only commissioned to carry out the defense of Biafrans whose communities and farmlands were being ravaged by the invading Fulani terrorists.

But it is gladdening to note that IPOB/ESN have been vindicated for their innocence and none involvement in this latest political act of criminality. The event has really uncovered the evil developments taking place within the Nigerian political environment. Most unfortunately, the government of Imo State under the tyrannical control of Hope Uzodimma, instrcuted the Imo State Command of the Nigerian Police to perpeteate that assassination attempt on Uche Nwosu. The video recording of that incident which virally captured the aggression very well, confirmed what transpired which could not be denied. 

The Imo State Commissioner of Police eventually came up to claim that Uche Nwosu was arrested and not abducted. And the questions then,  are: "how can an arrest be effected on someone with sporadic gunshots from church and even without arrest warrant? How can someone be arrested like a condemned criminal, through the trailing of his security convoy under heavy weaponry? It is an established fact that Nigeria under the present political dispensation particularly, has aggravated its lawlessness and abuse of individual rights but the mode of arrest so termed, of Uche Nwosu, is to say the least, most callous, terroristic, unprofessional and undemocratic. It totally negates the principle of rule of law. It is this same act of lawlessness that has characterized the country, that bluntly facilitated the kidnap and secret assassination of many before now. The Uche Nwosu experience has very clearly proven that the Nigerian government is the sponsor of the gruesome killings and disappearances of notable number of Biafrans even in Biafraland. IPOB/ESN are hereby vindicated. It is the desperate, selfish and criminal Nigerian politicians that are the brains behind terrorism in the country. 

Biafrans are only peacefully and rightly seeking the unfettered restoration of their own nation. All the ongoing killings and disappeaeances of people across the land especially the South-East region, with Imo State as the hotbed, are being orchestrated by the Nigerian government through its stooges.

Written by Lydia Mikachi 

Published by Family Writers Press International.

IPOB To Announce Plans For 2022 On Nnamdi Kanu, Biafran Struggle On New Year Day

 IPOB To Announce Plans For 2022 On Nnamdi Kanu, Biafran Struggle On New Year Day

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has announced that the Head of Directorate of State, Chika Edoziem, will address IPOB family members via Radio Biafra by 7pm on Saturday, January 1, 2022.

According to a statement issued by its spokesperson, Emma Powerful, which was made available to Press on Monday, Edoziem will speak on important matters to chat the struggle for sovereign Biafra nation.

This is just as the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, remains in the custody of the Department of State Services amid several protests by the group and calls by Nigerians and interest groups.

Powerful also disclosed that the programme would go live on Facebook and other platforms.

The statement read, "We the global family and movement of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) wish to announce to the people of Biafra both home and in the diaspora, friends of Biafra and lovers of freedom that the Head of Directorate of State of IPOB, Chika Edoziem, will address Biafrans on radio Biafra on Saturday 1st of January 2022.

"He will highlight the achievements IPOB has recorded this year, and hint on the roadmaps to our liberation. He will also address some pertinent issues pertaining to our struggle for independence.

"IPOB has gone beyond human destruction and it will remain so till Biafra freedom is fully achieved. Anybody can say whatever they like, IPOB remains unshakable. There is no retreat until Biafra sovereignty is fully restored.

"The broadcast will be simultaneously relayed live through our many channels including IPOB community radio, tuning, radio Biafra FM, Facebook, satellite and others.

"We, therefore, urge everybody to hook on and listen in during the broadcast. We also wish to inform Biafrans that Mazi Chinasa Nworu, and his crew will also be on radio Biafra for questions and answer on 30th of December. Call in during the live programme for your questions on anything bothering on our independence struggle."

Nigeria: Security Operatives Now Behaving Like Terrorists ― Shiites’ Leader, El-Zakzaky

 Nigeria: Security Operatives Now Behaving Like Terrorists ― Shiites’ Leader, El-Zakzaky 

Leader of the Islamic Movement Of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, has said that the Nigerian security operatives behave now, like terrorists.  This happens sometimes when they are on operational mission. He stated this during the sixth anniversary of the 2015 Zaria killings of the Shiite muslim faithfuls.

In his statement after calling out the Nigerian armed forces for killing more than 100 Shiite members in the year, 2015, he said, “Men in uniform  – soldiers, policemen and secret police officers who do not wear uniforms are sent to unleash terror on the people. In fact, nowadays, they even done the garments of terrorists. They cover their faces in the same way terrorists do and exhibit similar modus operandi as the terrorists. The armed forces of Nigeria, have become an instrument of terrorism and this has taught the people to be violent. People have been forced, due to circumstances, to become violent because the state has become violent.

“We are talking about rights. We have to understand that this society can never be in order unless those in authority respect the rights of other people".

“Those occupying positions in government think and act as if they are above the law, they take the life of anybody at any moment, destroy villages and play blind to the activities of Fulani herdsmen that are terrorizing defenseless people. The government does not care about the welfare of the people it claims to lead, no amount of cries and pleading from the helpless, can make them make policies that would favour the poor. They are indifferent to what happens to other people,” 

El-Zakzaky equally stated that the right to life, as a fundamental human right has been taken away from the citizens.

He concluded by telling the world that Nigerian security forces have murdered peace.

Written by Onyemachi Gabriel

Edited by Cindy Etuk

For Family Writers Press International

FWPI Editorial: The Upcoming Costly Hyper-Inflation And Its Prevention

 FWPI Editorial: The Upcoming Costly Hyper-Inflation And Its Prevention

Late Michael Iheonukara Okpara,  premier of the old Eastern region of Nigeria, during the first republic, had the oversight function of the economy that witnessed rapid growth and was ranked amongst the world's best. He had a strong belief in "agricultural reform as being crucial to the ultimate success". That particular historical era was a period of confederacy. Some have honestly adjudged that period as an era of regional patriotism. The Eastern, Western and Northern regions were just working fine. Many countries particularly from the Asian continent, visited the Eastern region, to study its outstanding economic activities. Regrettably, an unfortunate military disruption of the then democracy, crept in, orchestrating an avoidable war. A war that claimed over three million Biafrans. This is where the sun got set over the economy of Nigeria.

Oil and gas then happened. As hostilities eventually ended, General Yakubu Gowon introduced a policy codenamed: "Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (3R). At a very young age and possessing only military experience, the oil boom of the 1970s, grossly distracted him from focus. Some yet insist he was not in charge but under the influencing control of external forces. The accumulation of easy and overwhelming financial windfall on the young soldiers welding sophiscated weapons and power, chatted the path and with such, came Nigeria's seeming endemic nosedive. The nineteen seventies, eighties and nineties, witnessed more unpatriotic, power grabbing coup d'etat, motivated only by corruption and total disregard for infrastructural development.

By the year 2000, it was already thirty (30) years, after the civil war and the nascent democratic dispensation was just a year old. The young soldiers and their civilian accomplices had grown old enough. Many of the soldiers transformed into civilian life, becoming part of the political establishment. They moved on to "business as usual". None stopped to question about the abandoned policy of the 3R (Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction), earlier promised by Yakubu Gowon. By the year 2015, the children born during the civil war,  had clocked at least, forty five (45) years. They would no longer accept what Senator Ben Murray Bruce called "Supression of Talents". They have become vocal and their leader is Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Muhammadu Buhari, the man currently in power as the Nigerian President, has totally not shown that he assumed power to humanely govern the country. But rather, the opposite has become the case. Critics say he is displaying his unhidden hatred just as he arrogantly did, as a young military Head of State. He committed enormous acts of genocide while others argue that his old age, terminal illness and clannish advisors surrounding him, are to be blamed. Still, with dwindling oil price, historical borrowing, poor fiscal behavior and external infrastructural development mindset, precisely in Niger Republic, the future most definitely, looks bleak for the country. And this is compounded by the extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), from Kenya, which is threatening to tear into shreds, the country. It is understandable that any government would want to keep the country together, people with knowledge of such a complex issue, have explained that involvement in illegality does not in anyway, prevent a breakup.

Here are however, outlined ways of preventing such an experience:

1) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is the most essential Eastern Economy and by extension, Nigeria. Releasing him unconditionally from detention, rather than the present court case of total display of hate, will definitely pull Nigeria out from the brink.

2) Unconditional release should also be given to Sunday Igboho and other prisoners of conscience, wasting away in detention cells, through unethical methods in the hands of the agents of different Secret Security Services. This gesture will pave the way for a true national dialogue.

3) Security and National inclusiveness should be encouraged. Genuine effort should be made to seek a third best alternative. A win-win position is the only solution. Life should not be a zero-sum game. The Nigerian President must be encouraged to understand that no one tribe has to suffer or be taken undue advantage of. If the present hate/oppressive atmosphere is sustained, what happens when he eventually vacates office? Referendum is a democratic way of settling disagreements. No one has to be killed for rightly placing a demand for that. 

4) Agro-driven economy and economic diversification must have to be pursued as a life saving policy. It is not hidden to anyone that the impact would not be felt immediately but the genuineness of effort would certainly produce national cohesion, leading to willing short term endurance.

5) Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu of blessed memory, made it emphatically clear that Yakubu Jack Gowon, was not the problem though. The problem was and still is, the unelected, non-citizen bureaucrats/technocrats at Number 10 Downing Street, London and beyond. We can and must stop allowing these people to meddle in our domestic affairs. If we must survive as a people, Africa must have to be truly independent.

Written by Chibueze Daniel

Editor, Family Writers Press International

The Award winning judgment of the year 2021 in Nigeria

 The Award winning judgment of the year 2021 in Nigeria

Self-determination is a fundamental right…that cannot be subjugated – Justice Akintola

Agitations for self-determination are not new. They started long ago as people who speak the same language and perhaps share the same faith and boundary resolve to come together as one. Their common affinity is the sole determinant of their struggle for a common entity. The struggle is usually long and tortuous wherever this set of people seeks to quit a nation state. In some cases, the state labels them as rebels and go all out to kill their struggle. At times, the agitators too pay with their lives. Is there anything wrong in agitations for self-determination? No, says Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Ibadan High Court, in his verdict on the case of Yoruba Nation Agitator Chief Sunday Adeyemo popularly known as Sunday Igboho against the Federal Government.

Nigeria was virtually drowned in the wave of such agitations in the outgoing year. Groups and people rose in some parts of the country, demanding that they be allowed to go. The agitations were pronounced in the Southwest and Southeast. That of the Southeast, however, took a different bent with government clamping down on the agitators. 

The arrowhead of the campaign, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wanted United Nations supervised referendum, which Nigeria government sees as terrorism and a call to break Nigeria. Kanu, who is in custody facing treasonable felony trial, found support in the youths, who have been holding the region down, with a weekly sit-at-home order by IPOB.

Are self-determination and secession the same thing? A thin line runs through them. Self-determination is a peaceful agitation to leave a country, while secession is forceful separation from an entity. People resort to secession where they are oppressed by wicked government. Since the history of Nigeria, a call for self-determination has been demonised and seen as terrorism by government, in many occasions the Nigeria government meets the peaceful agitators with heavy handedness.

In 2017 Amnesty International reported how Nigeria security killed over 45 peaceful IPOB Biafra agitators celebrating Biafra day, According to Amnesty International 

"The Nigerian security forces must exercise restraint when policing demonstrations marking the 50th Anniversary of the end of the Biafra War on 30 May, and avoid a repetition of the bloodbath caused by their heavy-handed response last year when more than 60 people were gunned down, said Amnesty International today." 

“Last year’s heavy-handed response against pro-Biafra activists further stirred up tensions in the south east of Nigeria. The reckless approach to crowd control favoured by the security forces when policing peaceful pro-Biafra protests has left more than 150 dead since August 2015, not to mention cases of enforced disappearance and unlawful detention,” said Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria."

"During peaceful Biafra Day celebrations last year in Onitsha, Anambra State, soldiers shot people in several locations. Amnesty International research concluded that at least 60 extra-judicial executions were committed in the space of two days, with a further 70 people injured. The real number is likely to be higher." 

“Despite overwhelming evidence that members of the Nigerian security forces fired live ammunition with little or no warning to disperse pro-Biafra gatherings, resulting in the death of at least 150 people, no person suspected of criminal responsibility has been brought to justice,” Amnesty International

 Igboho hit the limelight with his exploits in Igangan, a community in Oyo State, in the heat of the herders and farmers skirmishes. He took sides with the farmers to chase out herders said to be wreaking havoc on the community. Igboho, who is battling for his release from custody in Cotonou, Benin Republic, ran into trouble with the government, which saw him as an existential threat.

His home in Soka, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, was invaded by security operatives in the wee hours of July 1. Some of his properties, including vehicles, were destroyed. One of his cats was also taken away by the security agents who believed that it was Igboho who turned into a cat! Igboho fled the country, but he was arrested in Cotonou on his way to Germany. His arrest and detention over there did not stop him from challenging the legality of the invasion of his home. He also sought the determination of the propriety of the Yoruba’s struggle for self-determination. He won on both counts. Justice Akintola declared the agitation for self-determination as legitimate.

According to him, ‘’Chief Sunday Adeyemo and his group have a right to self-determination and are free to hold their rallies as long as they are peaceful. Self-determination is one of the fundamental human rights of the citizens that cannot be subjugated’’. His finding was premised on Igboho’s request for:

A declaration that he and his Yoruba indigenous people have unquestionable and/or inalienable fundamental right to peacefully campaign and seek self-determination of Yoruba tribe in Nigeria and lobby the legislature to amend the 1999 Constitution as guaranteed by Article 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Right (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Laws of the Federation 2010, and Articles 3, 4, 7 & 18 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous People, thereby insulating campaign for self-determination from criminal culpability.

A declaration that the respondents’ resolve to prevent the applicant from propagating his belief in association with other like-minds in creating a Yoruba Nation and/or Oduduwa Republic for his Indigenous Yoruba People and hunting him with gun with a view to arresting him dead or alive when he has not called for war in achieving same is against his fundamental rights to freedom of thought, conscience and association since campaign for self-determination is recognised by law and international treaties of organisations to which Nigeria belongs.

Originally from The Nations Newspapers, Edited by Family Writers Press International .

US lawmakers opposes Blinken’s decision, want Nigeria relisted as religious persecutor

 US lawmakers opposes Blinken’s decision, want Nigeria relisted as religious persecutor

A group of United States lawmakers has written a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to reverse his decision to remove Nigeria from the list of countries that violate religious freedom.

“We are deeply troubled by your recent decision to remove Nigeria from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC).

“This decision is egregious. Your action undermines the United States’ commitment to protecting international religious freedom,” 12 Congressmembers said in the letter dated December 9.

Blinken yanked Nigeria off the list last month to a storm of criticism from religious rights activists across continents, including Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) based London and US Nigeria Law Group (USNLG) Managing Partner, Emmanuel Ogebe, based in Washington.

US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also expressed strong opposition to the decision, describing it as “appalling”.

USCIRF said it found it “unexplainable” that the Department of State did not redesignate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) and treated it as a country with no severe religious freedom violations.

“USCIRF is disappointed that the State Department did not adopt our recommendations in designating the countries that are the worst violators of religious freedom,” said USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza.

US lawmakers argue against delisting Nigeria

“One of our founding ideals as a nation is to allow citizens the freedom to practice religion and to maintain that freedom to do so.

“As a result of this core value, we as a nation are compelled to promote religious freedom around the world and point it out when other counties are not,” the lawmakers explained in the letter.

“We are deeply troubled by your recent decision to remove Nigeria from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC).

“This decision is egregious. Your action undermines the United States’ commitment to protecting international religious freedom.

“Nigeria, being the most populous country in Africa, is home to 80 million professing Christians. Millions of Christians living in Nigeria face some of the worst acts of persecution, causing many to flee as a result of the devastating violence.

“Since June of 2015, there have been 11,000 Nigerian Christians killed by jihadists, radicalized herdsmen from the Fulani tribe and the emerging Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram. 1,202 of those killings happened in the first six months of 2020.

“In 2021 alone, an estimated 3,462 Christians have been killed.

“We find this decision highly suspect, as it came just days before your trip to Africa to meet with Nigerian officials. It also goes directly against the 2021 recommendations for Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) and Special Watch List (SWL) by United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

“Your refusal to listen to the recommendations of the USCIRF and blatant disregard to the atrocities in Nigeria lacks necessary condemnation to those currently committing religious persecution abroad.

“We implore you to reconsider this decision.”

The 12 members of the US House of Representatives who signed the letter are:

Mary Miller

Bob Good

Mark Green

Ralph Norman

Gus Bilirakis

Vicky Hartzler

Tracy Mann

Mo Brooks

Michael Guest

Brian Babin

Louie Gohmert

Laurent Boebert

Dan Bishop

Michael Cloud

Ogebe commends lawmakers’ action

US Nigeria Law Group (USNLG) Managing Partner, Emmanuel Ogebe, who is based in Washington, commended the lawmakers for urging Blinken to reverse the religious persecution delisting because it gives Abuja the “license to kill”.

He thanked the Congressmen and women who took “the bold step” of calling out Blinken for his “ill-advised” removal of Nigeria from the list of religious persecutors.

Ogebe said: “Probably no policy position of the US government on Nigeria has attracted more universal condemnation than this.

“Indeed, the bipartisan US Commission on International Religious Freedom took the rare step of condemning a fellow US government office – the U.S. State Department.

“Even members of the British House of Lords in the U.K. have similarly lampooned Secretary Blinken’s actions as have NGOs all over US, Europe and Nigeria.

“The action was baseless and amounts to voodoo diplomacy as even during my latest visit to Nigeria last week, over a dozen Muslim  worshippers were reportedly killed and women raped in mosques while dozens of hapless people were burnt alive in cars.

“Similarly, in addition to the failure of most states to complete their own #EndSARs investigations, even Lagos state that was hailed for exposing the truth of the Lekki massacre has now backpedaled and shot itself in the foot by denying that there was indeed a massacre.

“Accordingly, … Blinken is urged to rethink the license to kill given to Nigeria especially as we mark the 5th anniversary of the Shiites massacre in Kaduna state.

“It is not too late to get it right, and Blinken owes it to humanity and himself not to screw up again this year.”

Biafra: Nigerian Government's Suppression Of Igbo Talents

 Biafra: Nigerian Government's Suppression Of Igbo Talents

A famous Nigerian music artist in one of his songs said, "freedom is life". Suffocating Ndigbo/Biafrans' talents has been identified as majorly why the agitations for the restoration of Biafra has been generating much waves. This was contained in a statement by the advocate of common sense, a legislator who represented Bayelsa East Senatorial District, Senator Ben Murray Bruce. 

This came from his Twitter handle @benmurraybruce, in April 2021, there he wrote on "why Ndigbo and Biafrans are seeking for a nation of their own". He stated:

"An average Igbo speaking person and the entire youths in Nigeria believe that Nigeria is suppressing their talents. Anyone who cares should investigate the way the officials of the Nigerian arm-bearing forces like the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian police and army, are intimidating, kidnapping and killing youths, you will know why they want a separate nation of their own where they can reach their potentials. 

The day the Nigerian government starts to cooperate with the Igbos will be the day Nigeria will compete with the rest of the world.

Why has it been too difficult for the world to separate Biafrans from Nigeria and see if the assertions is true or not? It is time to let Biafrans be on their own.

Written by

Onyemachi Gabriel

Edited by

Cindy Etuk

For Family Writers Press International