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From David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
Leader of Biafra Independence Movement and Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (BIM-MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, yesterday, distanced himself from the face-off between the former leader of Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Asari Dokubo and the Indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB).
In a statement issued on his behalf by Mazi Chris Mocha, his director of information and senior special assistant to BIM/MASSOB on Media and Publicity, Uwazuruike said that he was only interested in how Nnamdi Kanu could be released from the DSS custody and not what Dokubo said on social media platforms.
Uwazuruike urged the public to separate him from anything concerning Dokubo.
“I do not even have Asari Dokubo’s phone number, let alone speaking with him on phone. It’s up to three years now since we last spoke either on phone or on friendly conversation,” Uwazuruike said.
He warned those accusing him of conniving with Dokubo to retrace their steps, advising them to go and verify from Dokubo himself to find out if both of them had spoken as friends for the past three years now.
“If you have a problem with Asari Dokubo, you had better settle that with him and not dragging Ralph Uwazuruike into the matter.
“I am a non-violent crusader, known all over the world and everyone should fight his own battles, carry the cross and not calling me to do that for them,” he added.
Uwazuruike recalled how he visited the leader of the NDPVF in 2002, and he told him in Port Harcourt that the issue of Biafra was not one project to be achieved through non-violence, insisting that violence was the only language that Nigerian government understood.
“So, Dokubo has never worked with me on the path of non-violence struggles and when he was championing the cause for Niger Delta people, he took up arms and ammunition against the Federal Government which everyone could testify to,” Uwazuruike noted.
The MASSOB founder who holds the traditional title of Ijele Ndigbo described Dokubo as a man who matches his words with action and urged those who are insulting Dokubo on social media platforms to go and face him squarely.
He added that Dokubo’s comments asking the Federal government not to release Nnamdi Kanu was his personal opinion as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution as amended, noting that his opinion could not override those of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organizations, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and South East Governors, among others that had continued to demand for Kanu’e release.
Uwazuruike insisted that whatever internal differences he or any other Biafran activist might have with Kanu should be settled amongst them.
He called on everyone to join hands with him to seek for the release of the detained IPOB leader.
Uwazuruike said that he was only pre-occupied with the process that would lead to the release of Kanu from the DSS custody and not talking about irrelevant matters about who said what and who said the other.
He urged the Federal Government to release Nnamdi Kanu, saying that it was against the rule of law that one should be held incommunicado for this long in the DSS facility or anywhere, even after several courts of competent jurisdictions had ordered for his immediate release.
