Asari Dokubo says it belongs to Ijaw; IPOB, MASSOB, says origin and ownership of the name not important

LEADER of the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Force Asari Dokubo has said that the people of the Ijaw ethnic nationality are the owners of the name ‘Biafra’ and as a result, are the original Biafrans. Dokubo also advanced the Ijaw claim to ownership of the territory known in history as the Bight of Biafra.

Dokubo, an Ijaw man, spoke in an interview aired on Arise News Television on July 28. The interview was monitored by The ICIR.

The former militant leader, in the interview, suggested that Biafra as being championed by the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has a pro-Igbo outlook which, according to him, does not accommodate other ethnic nationalities that made up the old Eastern Region which broke away from Nigeria to form Biafra in 1967.

The breakaway region was forcefully reabsorbed into Nigeria after the federal army defeated the rebel troops in a bloody civil war that lasted three years.

About 44 years after the civil war, a campaign for the actualisation of an independent Biafran state is still raging on with IPOB currently at the vanguard of the struggle.

Dokubo had earlier fallen out with IPOB leader, Kanu, who is currently detained by the Nigerian government after he was arrested and brought back to Nigeria from Kenya.

In the Arise News Television interview, Dokubo attacked IPOB for allegedly alienating the non-Igbo nationalities that were part of the defunct Republic of Biafra.

But he also used the opportunity to advance the claims of the Ijaw over the name ‘Biafra’.

“Ijaw is Biafra. Ijaws are divided between the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra, we are the owners of Biafra. Biafra is an Ijaw name, we own it. The territory identified as Biafra is Ijaw, maybe with a little Ibibios towards the end and Oron people.

“The real Biafra – the name Biafra – the geographical location known as Biafra is Ijaw and a little bit Oron and a little bit Ibibio. Some few Ibibios are in that territory known as the Bight of Biafra,” Dokubo said.

He buttressed his claims with a historical account of the role played by an Ijaw man, Frank Opigo, in the declaration of the defunct Republic of Biafra from Nigeria by rebel leader Odumegwu Ojukwu in 1967.

In 1967, the eastern Ijaws were part of the old Eastern Region and when the Eastern Consultative Assembly was convened in Enugu, capital of the region, in 1967, it was Opigo that suggested the name ‘Biafra’ for the new breakaway country formed out of the Eastern Region.

Some historical accounts state that the word ‘Biafra’ came from the name of the geographical location known as ‘Bight of Biafra’. The Nigerian government changed the name ‘Bight of Biafra’ to ‘Bight of Bonny’ after the civil war.

Opigo was to become the administrator of the Yenagoa Province of Biafra and commissioner for rural development after the declaration of the Republic of Biafra in 1967. He reportedly died in 2010 at the age of 84.

Dokubo pointed to Opigo’s role in the formation of the defunct Republic of Biafra to justify his claim that ‘Biafra is Ijaw’ and as such has nothing to do with the Igbos.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/who-owns-biafra/

Nothing like Biafra. Biafra is an adulterated Portuguese word. Their are no Biafrans. There are Igbos, Efiks, Ibibios, Ikweres, Ogonis, Kalabaris etc all from the the British created former Eastern Nigeria.

Biafra is a modern day fantasy of some hallucinating Igbos.

Igbos will stand alone in their 5 State Republic.

Nobody is forcing anyone to join anyone post Nigeria.

The Nationalities of the Niger delta will choose freely their own future post Nigeria.

Niger Deltans hope to be good neighbors with Igbo Republic.

IPOB WORLDWIDE LIMITED. REGISTERD BY KANU IN LONDON. He owns it, but told his followers that Biafra will not come unless Niger Delta is part of it.

Niger Delta people: