Biafra Zionists Federation threatens to seize Government House Enugu on August 20

SECESSIONIST group the Biafra Zionists Federation (BZF) has vowed to prevent elections taking place across the southeast next year when Nigeria goes to the polls and has threatened to seize Government House in Enugu on August 20.

Like several other secessionist organisations, BZF is campaigning for the recreation of the defunct Republic of Biafra that existed briefly between July 1967 and January 1970. Wanting Nigeria's 30m Igbos to break away and form a sovereign state, the BZF is opposed to the elections taking place in February next year, saying they are an imposition on the southeast geo-political zone.

Yesterday, BZF's self-acclaimed president Benjamin Onwuka, who spoke in Enugu a day after he was released from prison, boasted that he would take over Enugu Government House on August 20 to announce an independent Biafra. Mr Onwuka was arrested on May 30 alongside 32 members of his group in front of Enugu Government House where they had gone to declare Biafran independence but they were later discharged and acquitted by a Magistrate Court.

He said nothing would stop him from seizing Enugu Government House on August 20 as the president of Biafra as Enugu remains the capital of Biafraland. According to Mr Onwuka,  the struggle for the realization of Biafra has received fresh momentum with the support of the US and Isreali governments.

Mr Onwuka said: “We will return back to Enugu Government House on August 20, so the Nigerian government has 31 days to run and wound up. Enugu is the capital of Biafra.

“Enugu Government House is the property of Biafra. It does not belong to Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, it does not belong to Muhammadu Buhari and also does not belong to Nigeria, so I will seize the place on that day and the Isreali forces will be backing us on that day and we are inviting all Biafrans, students, Middle Belt, South-South and South West citizens to come out and receive their freedom on that day.”

Confirming that he and his colleagues were charged with treasonable felony after their arrests, Mr Onwuka stated that the US ordered their release from prison last month, adding however that the order was not carried out until Thursday night. He claimed the order for their release came directly from President Donald Trump.

“The magistrate who had earlier declined an  jurisdiction on the matter and sent us to prison, suddenly pronounced us discharged and acquitted. We simply walked out of prison and we thank the president of the US, Donald Trump, who issued the order.

“Nobody believed we will return from prison but we went in and we have come out. They can’t do anything and we are going to show that we have the power of Isreali behind us," Mr Onwuka added.

He also announced a ban on all political activities in Biafraland, stressing that elections would not hold there in 2019. Mr Onwuka listed the areas where there would not be election in 2019 to include the southeast, south-south, southwest, Bakassi Peninsula and Middle Belt, saying they are part of Biafran territory.

Mr Onwuka added, however, that the Nigerian government was free to conduct elections in 10 northern states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi, Gombe, Borno and Yobe states.