Emerging African States plan All-Biafra conference

Tuesday March 8, 2016

By Ameh Ejekwonyilo, Theo Rays and Steve Oko 

 

The Organisation of Emerging African States (OEAS) is planning an international conference to discuss the way forward on the ongoing agitations for an independent Biafra State.

Tagged the All-Biafran Conference (ABC), the organisers said that all pro- Biafra groups will be invited to the confab.

 

In a letter to the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), the OEAS said that the All-Biafra Conference 2016 would be held soon at a location it will provide.

The organization said that the failure to unite is promoting and supporting the lie and calumny of tribalism in the struggle for the Biafra State.

 

The group called for the creation and implementation of a Biafra United Front (BUF) to use necessary means to achieve the desired goals. The group made the call after accusing the Federal Government of Nigeria of total neglect of its demands on the issue of Biafra.

 

The OEAS’ letter was endorsed by Dr. Ebenezer Derek Mbongo Akwanga Jnr, the group’s Secretary General and Jonathan Levy, Solicitor, Chief Administrative Officer of OEAS.

They accused the Federal Government of neglecting its initial demand to among other things, release from jail the leaders and supporters of pro-Biafra movements like the Biafra Zionist Movement, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the IPOB.

 

The group said that it asked the government to order the military and police forces to stand down and return to their barracks and to organise a snap referendum on Biafran self-determination to be held within 90 days.

The African group lamented that Nigeria not only ignored these demands, but arrested more pro-Biafran agitators using the military to attack unarmed protesters, adding that “it is regrettable that the Nigerian government has dismissed the idea of a referendum on Biafra.”

 

The African group said: “The OEAS offers its good offices to put out a call for the creation of a united front and organising meeting of all groups in greater Biafra land and its environs including the Annang, Efik, Kalabari, Ibibio, Idoma, Igala, Igbo, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Ogoni and Urhobo communities.

“All involved groups and organisations must put aside their internal differences, personality issues, tribal and regional differences to achieve the desired goal,” the group said.

 

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has been granted its request to protect the identity of witnesses in the ongoing trial of the detained IPOB leader, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.

Kanu, who is facing a six-count treason charge, had opposed an application by the government to conduct his trial in secret.

 

The government had in the application it filed before the Federal High Court, Abuja, decried that all the witnesses billed to testify against Kanu and two other pro-Biafra agitators, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi, who are facing trial with him, have declined to appear in court.

It said the witnesses insisted that they would not testify against the defendants unless their safeties were guaranteed.

 

However, at Monday’s proceedings when the government was billed to open its case against Kanu, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mohammed Diri, applied for the shielding of witnesses.

Diri informed the court that the witnesses in the suit had declined to testify following threats from associates of the detained IPOB leader.

 

While opposing the application to shield witnesses, Kanu’s lawyer, Chuks Muoma (SAN), argued that the court had on February 19, 2016 decided on the Federal Government’s request to protect witnesses, adding that if the prosecution was not satisfied with the court’s decision, it should appeal against the order.

 

Delivering a bench ruling on the submissions of the counsel, the trial judge, Justice John Tsoho, dismissed the objection by Muoma.

Justice Tsoho ruled that the request by the government for its witnesses to testify behind a witness screen “does not amount to revisiting the court’s earlier ruling prohibiting the prosecution witnesses from wearing masks.”

 

The court upheld the argument of the prosecution led by the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Diri, that the screen would only shield the witnesses from the members of the public present in court.

The judge explained that the use of the screens would not prevent the judge, the accused persons and lawyers to the parties from seeing the witnesses while testifying.

 

The court also dismissed the request by Muoma that the court should discharge and acquit the defendants because the prosecution failed to produce its witnesses to enable the trial to commence on Monday.

The judge averred that the provisions of Section 351(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 relied on by the defence to ask for the quashing of the charges, did not apply to the circumstances of the case.

According to the judge, the court can only dismiss the charges against an accused person who is present in court when the complainant in the case is not represented in court.

 

He said that a pre-trial demonstration of the use of the witness protection screens would be held on Wednesday morning before lawyers to parties and the defendants. The suit was adjourned till March 9 (tomorrow) for trial.

Meanwhile, IPOB has called for the immediate sack and replacement of Justice Tsoho for reversing himself on the masking of witnesses against Kanu.

 

IPOB said that the sudden U-turn by the judge on his earlier ruling that witnesses against Kanu should not wear masks as sought by the government confirmed its fears that Kanu would never get justice in the Nigeria legal system.

The pro-Biafra group, in a statement issued by its spokespersons, Emma Mezu and Dr. Clifford Iroanya, called on the National Judicial Commission (NJC) to derobe the judge.

 

Speaking during the visit, the Emir of Kano, Malam Muham­madu Sanusi II, also explained that his group and Dangote Industries would contribute $5 billion each for the construction of a coal pow­er plant and a solar energy project in Kano, as well as gas pipeline project from Akwa Ibom to South West Ni­geria, where Dangote Industries are concentrated.

 

He stated that the consortium decided to embark on the pow­er projects in Kano because of the power crisis in the state, explain­ing that the coal project and the so­lar energy project would produce about 1,000 MW and 100 MW, re­spectively.

Malam Sanusi expressed opti­mism that the projects would to a large extent improve electricity pow­er generation in the state for both the consumption of Kano residents and for the revival of the ailing in­dustries in the state.

 

The State Governor, Dr Abdul­lahi Umar Ganduje, however, was upbeat that, “the project would bail Kano State out of its prevailing eco­nomic depression and uplift it to an­other level of economic prosperity and development.”

 

“Now that the national econo­my is dwindling, we have no better way to revive it than to invest in ag­riculture and resuscitate our indus­tries”, the governor stated, promis­ing that the state government would provide land, among other things, to enable the project to materialise,” he added.

 

Stressing that power is very crit­ical to the survival of industries in the State, Dr Ganduje announced that the state government is also making modest efforts to provide electricity through the ongoing multi-billion Naira Independent Power Projects at Tiga and Chall­awa, which would generate 35MW of electricity.