Lauretta Onochie, Senior Special Assistant on Social Media to President Buhari has said the agitation for a sovereign nation known as Republic of Biafra died and was buried with the Nigerian Civil War.
She stated this today following Imo attacks which the police have accused members of the Indigenous People of Biafra of being the masterminds.
Onochie, who is from Southern Nigeria, tweeted a video showing the then Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, receiving the then Biafran Vice President, Major General Philip Effiong, who facilitated the surrender of the Biafran State to Nigeria in 1970.
Effiong had assumed leadership of the secessionist state after the Biafran leader, Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, fled to Ivory Coast in the heat of the civil war.
The gesture signalled the end of the first and only civil war, which lasted for two and a half years, in the annal of Nigeria.
But decades later, secessionist agitations resurfaced in the South-East. The agitation, this time, is being championed by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
The Buhari regime had in September 2017 outlawed IPOB and declared that the activities of the group constituted an act of terrorism and illegality.
Despite the declaration, the outlawed group continue to mount pressure on the Nigerian State to allow self-determination as it is tired of the Lugardian contraption known as Nigeria.
Being target of attack and arrest by State Security Operatives, IPOB formed its own security outfit known as the Eastern Security Network.
The security outfit is usually at loggerheads with law enforcement agencies in the country.
Consequently, when some gunmen attacked Owerri Police Headquarters and Owerri correctional centre in Imo State in the early hours of yesterday, the Inspector General accused the outlawed group of being responsible for the attacks.
Reacting today on her official Twitter handle to the attack in Owerri the Imo State capital, Onochie wrote:
“Relief on the faces of Philip Effiong 2nd in command to Ojukwu & his men as they surrender says #NeverAgainBiafra
“The joy on d face of d then Head of state Yakubu Gowon says, #OneNigeria.
“The very day nails were put in the coffin of #Biafra There’ll never be Biafra again, Never pic.twitter.com/4sNFYhBcKP”
— Lauretta Onochie (@Laurestar) April 5, 2021
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