Six die at rally
2005-09-08 14:11
Lagos - Six people, including a policeman, were killed in violent clashes between Nigerian police and a separatist group in Onitsha, said officials on Thursday.
Kolapo Shofoluwe of police said the trouble erupted on Wednesday after policemen attempted to halt a rally organised by the banned Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).
He said: "Our men were sent to break the protest because it was illegal. No permit was issued. It was at this stage that MASSOB members shot three of our men.
"One died on the spot, while the other two are in critical condition in the hospital."
He said police did not open fire, but a MASSOB spokesperson said five of its members were shot dead by the police and several others were injured.
Harassment, intimidation
John Edeson said: "Men of the Nigerian police opened fire on our members during a peaceful rally to protest the constant harassment and intimidation of our leader Ralph Uwazuruike.
"We lost five supporters to the police brutality. We are appealing to the United Nations to save us from the oppression and suppression of the Nigerian government."
MASSOB was formed in 1999 to seek a separatist state for the some 40 million Igbo people of southeast Nigeria.
Between 1967 and 1970 the Igbo ethnic group fought a brutal civil war against federal forces, seeking independence for their so-called "Republic of Biafra" from the rest of Nigeria.
More than a million people, most of them Igbo, were killed or starved to death during the war.
Last month, MASSOB reintroduced the old Biafran currency, which was fast becoming a legal tender in most trading centres and markets in Igboland.