Ndi Anioma of Nigeria, a socio-cultural group of Anioma people of Delta State, has dissociated itself from recent pro-Biafra agitations in South East and South South geo-political zones in the country, describing it as a “wild goose chase”.
In a statement titled ‘Anioma, Not A Part Of Biafra’ and made available on its Facebook page, the group described the protesters as “resentful people…who are attempting to exploit a non-existent opportunity”.
The statement released on Sunday and signed by 13 executives of the association also described the arrest of Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu as “deserved”.
It read in part: “The attention of Ndi Anioma of Nigeria, the umbrella body covering Anioma people at home and in Diaspora has been drawn to the recent protest associated with a group of people, in the name of Biafra, in which protesters of South East origin are calling for the secession of a separate state of Biafra from Nigeria.
“The purpose of this dissent, they have admitted, also relates to the deserved arrest of a UK-based Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the man behind the venomous Radio Biafra.
“Like most observers who followed the nature of Biafra in 1967, Ndi Anioma is of the view that Biafra died permanently in 1970 with the surrender speech made by Philip Effong in which he emphatically stated ‘Biafra ceases to exist’, following Col. Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu’s flee to Ivory Coast.
“In spite of this circumstance, a few resentful people of South-East origin who are attempting to exploit a non-existent opportunity to make the present democratic dispensation ungovernable, have keyed into MASSOB’s long-time motive designed to secede their people.
“Worse still, some people of that region have gone on a wild chase of goose, making diagrammatic representation in an irredentist manner where important territories outside the South-East, including our Anioma have been included in their inventive maps to convince the world on the expansiveness of Biafra and probably for the benefit of oil in Anioma.
“These people have made a long journey from their South-East region to Asaba, the Delta State capital, blocking off major roads to give the false impression that the Anioma people have agreed to be part of Biafra.”
The group stated that Anioma had never been and will never be a part of any illusory sovereign state of Biafra.