IGBOZURUOKE FORUM

By Alphonsus Agborh,

Members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have been told to stay off Okpanam in Delta State, the hometown of the late Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu.

Nzeogwu was famed for the 1966 coup that ended the First Republic.

The traditional ruler of the town, Obi Michael Mbanefo Ogbolu, who gave the order after the agitators sought audience with his palace, said his people had suffered enough at the hands of the defunct secessionist regime of Biafra during the civil war.

The monarch was reacting to a message by a Pentecostal church pastor and a member of IPOB that the group’s leader Nnamdi Kanu, planned to visit the late Nzeogwu’s town to further propagate the Biafra agenda.

Recounting the losses of the Okpanam people because of the revolutionary soldier, Obi Ogbolu noted that the then warlord of Biafra, Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, never appreciated Nzeogwu.

“After Major Nzeogwu’s death, the late Dr Tai Solarin embarked on the educational training of his siblings, family, while Chief Olusegun Obasanjo took care of his mother even till her death, even as Obasanjo also took active part in Mama Elizabeth Nzeogwu’s burial without the concern and involvement of Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu or anybody from his family or colleagues from Biafra”, the monarch said.

He disclosed that the death of Nzeogwu left a lot of questions unanswered and stressed that most of the agitators did not witness the civil war.

The monarch made it clear that the Okpanam people supported restructuring but “we do not support the splitting of the country by relying on the United Nations declaration on self determination which abhors intimidation or violence”.

Nigerian Tribune