MASSOB Evacuates First Batch of displaced Igbo Women and Children from Kano0 CommentsBy admin
Posted on 23 Feb 2012 at 9:29am

Residents of Onitsha trooped out in their large numbers recently to welcome the first batch of Igbo Indigenes, mostly women and children, that fled the troubled Northern part of the country.

The chartered luxury bus, which conveyed the returnees, arrived at Onitsha at 7:00a.m. Many of the returnees, who were apparently confused could not hold back tears. As adults cried over what the future holds for them, scores of infants among them also cried either for food or to be breastfed.

They were received by their relatives, Igbo leaders and top officials of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). The returnees, numbering 116, were the first batch to be evacuated from the North by the leadership of MASSOB. Igbo political leaders had advised against Igbo evacuation from the North.
Receiving the returnees on behalf of MASSOB’s leader, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, facilitator of the evacuation, Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka, said the move became imperative when the safety of lives and property of Ndigbo was no longer feasible in the volatile part of Northern Nigeria, especially Kano.

“No responsible leaders can allow their people to be stranded in a war zone and watch them slaughtered in their numbers without doing anything. So, we will continue to share the plight of our kinsmen in the North and will do everything possible to ensure that they arrive home safely. Thereafter, we shall resettle them. Most of them no longer have the means of livelihood, having lost all their fortunes in the North but the true Igbo leaders will not abandon them.

“What is happening in the North is a repeat of what happened in 1966 when Igbos were cajoled to stay back in the North with assurance of adequate security only to be massacred by the same people that asked them to stay. Igbos will never suffer the same fate again,” Ezeonwuka stated.

Ezeonwuka described the carnage in the Northern parts of the country, which, according to him, were targeted at Ndigbo, as plots by some Northern political and religious elements to totally wipe Ndigbo from Nigeria. He expressed sadness over the deaths of Ndigbo that lost their lives to the insurgence of Boko Haram’s sporadic shootings and bomb blasts.

Ezeonwuka assured the returnees that those of them, who were already stranded in Kano before the evacuation and those who have forgotten their homes that adequate provision had been made by leadership of MASSOB and other Igbo leaders to accommodate them in a place built for them in Okwe, Imo State.

He continued: “For those of you who have no other places to go, there is adequate provision of shelter for you where you will be properly taken care of. If you have been following the recent development in Igbo land, you probably might have heard that our war veterans, those people, who were abandoned by our people about 40 years ago, have been relocated and beautiful homes built for them. There are plans to bury our brothers and sisters who were killed in May last year.”

One of the returnees, Mrs. Elizabeth Echeta, who hails from Owerri, narrated her ugly experience this way: “I lived at No 2 Stadium Road, which is very close to Bompai, one of the places they bombed in Kano. On that fateful day, I was sick and was at home. I heard a sound and before long, I heard another one. People, living in the compound ran for help. But the attackers waited for residents of the compound to come out. The attackers slaughtered many people.

The bomb also affected even the Almajiris, who like watching Ndigbo being killed. “I lived in Bompai for more than 20 years. During an attack on us, I watched a pregnant woman as she was slaughtered. The attackers opened her womb, removed the baby in it, cut the baby’s head and killed the woman on the spot.

So, my experience in Kano was horrific and I don’t always like to recount it, please. I am like a useless person here because I am stranded and confused and many of our people are still stranded in Kano. We can’t go out of our homes for fear of attack and some of us returned without anything and may have to start all over again from the scratch.“If not for MASSOB, it won’t have been possible for us to leave Kano. Other states have evacuated their people after the Kano attacks.”

The returnees, numbering 116, were the first batch to be evacuated from the North by the leadership of MASSOB. Igbo political leaders had advised against Igbo evacuation from the North.

Well, I will say this. The number seems more plausible than Ohaneze's claim of evacuating more than 500,000. I mean to think such a lazy Organization has had the resources to do such but never thought to maybe invest it in massively improving life for at least 100,000 people who already live in one of the many eastern states.

Chineke duo ndi igbo no n'ala Hausa. Chukwu game elegide nnu anya. Ekpere ndi igbo so nnu. Die nu.

Kobojunkie:

Well, I will say this. The number seems more plausible than Ohaneze's claim of evacuating more than 500,000. I mean to think such a lazy Organization has had the resources to do such but never thought to maybe invest it in massively improving life for at least 100,000 people who already live in one of the many eastern states.

Ohanaeze Ndiara were and still are against Igbos leaving the north. They evacuated no one talkless of bring forth a bus.haba!