On Friday, 20th January 2017, members of Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB staged a peaceful solidarity rally over the victory of Donald Trump as the new president of the United States of America in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Unfortunately, the peaceful rally quickly became the venue for the unwholesome massacre, torture and illegal abduction of innocent and unarmed IPOB members by men of the Nigerian Army and other security forces of Nigeria.
The gory memory of the solidarity rally organized by IPOB for the inauguration of the newly elected US President, Donald Trump in Port-Harcourt, still hurts.
The rally turned bloody as the combined security forces of Nigeria violently went after unarmed citizens who were only carrying and waving the Biafran, American and Israeli flags thereby disrupting the peaceful procession.
The violence and monstrosity unleashed on IPOB by the Nigerian security operatives left a trail of eleven dead Biafrans which later rose to twenty as events unfolded, with over 63 others detained in various prison facilities across the State.
There was a particular Justus Kelechi Uwakwe from Eziudo, Ezinihitte LGA, Mbaise, Imo State Biafraland who was shot in the process. He was the young father of a two-year-old son, Kosisochukwu Uwakwe and his wife Mrs Uwakwe was heavily pregnant at the time.
The burial of this honourable man took me to Mbaise for the first time in my life. I left the scene in tears after speaking with his wife.
I still remember vividly the names of all the victims, there was another young man, Nzubechukwu, who was just 18 years old. He also did not make it home from that rally till date.
How soon have we forgotten these deaths of our promising young men? ”We lost a part of our future.”
”Let us bear in mind that the struggle must continue, let this be a wake-up call to us all. We must join hands together and speak in one voice in support for the restoration of the Biafran nation.
Nwada Ugochinyere Onyechere reporting, Obiwannem News
