Hundreds of people in southern
Nigeria have been protesting
about the continued detention
of Nnamdi Kanu, an activist
who supports the creation of a
breakaway state of Biafra.
The director of banned Radio
Biafra was arrested last month
and is still being held despite a
court order to free him, his
mainly ethnic Igbo supporters
say.
There are reports of violence
during a protest in Port
Harcourt.
Biafran secessionists fought a
three-year civil war that ended
in 1970.
More than one million people
lost their lives before the
uprising was eventually quelled
by the military.
Secessionist groups have
attracted the support of many
young people in the south-east
in recent years.
The BBC's Abdussalam Ahmed in
the south-eastern city of Enugu
says in reality they do not want a
repeat of the civil war but are
keen to draw the attention of
the central government to some
developmental challenges the
region faces.
Activists told the BBC that five
people were killed and several
others injured after police fired
shots and teargas to disperse
the protesters in Port Harcourt -
the largest city in the region.
But police spokesman Ahmad
Muhammad said this was
untrue.
"Measures have been put in
place to handle the situation in
such a way that public peace is
not disrupted and to ensure life
and property are protected," he
told the AFP news agency.
Protests were also held on
Tuesday in the city of Owerri in
Imo state, a day after the
region's biggest market in the
city of Aba was reportedly shut
down by protesters.
Our correspondent says the
protests started peacefully on
Friday in the oil-rich Delta state
and has since taken place in five
other major cities in the region.
The demonstrators are mostly
young men holding Biafra flags
and banners with pictures of Mr
Kanu, who is also a leader in the
secessionist Indigenous People
of Biafra (IPOB).
"We won't give up until our
director Nnamdi Kanu is
released," one protester told our
reporter during a protest in
Enugu.
It is not clear where Radio Biafra
is based but it mainly broadcasts
to the Igbo-speaking south-east
of the country.
The Nigerian government says it
has been operating without a
licence and began jamming its
signals in July, but its broadcasts
are still available online and via
mobile phones by a dialling a
local number.
An IPOB leader, Uchemna Madu,
told the BBC that the group was
fighting against the "injustice
and inequality" ethnic Igbos
faced in Nigeria.
"We believe in Nigeria, we have
businesses everywhere in the
country but we are getting
nothing apart from political and
social marginalisation," he said.
"Our lives and properties are not
secured, we want to live on our
own."
The Nigerian authorities have
always maintained that most of
the issues the Biafra activists are
complaining about are not
unique to southern part of the
country.


www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34777835?ocid=socialflow_twitter

How did they know

Indi akuko indewonu.

Mtcheww.....Another Ha-nwusia media propaganda

The world is now seeing the evil being wreck on armless and defenceless people. This is not good atall I think the army have to take it easy.

lalasticla front page.