Biafran protesters demonstrate near Buckingham Palace as Buhari meets with Commonwealth leaders

PROTESTERS demanding the recreation of the defunct Republic of Biafra and campaigning against the alleged marginalisation of Igbos in Nigeria demonstrated near Buckingham palace yesterday as President Muhammadu Buhari met with Prime Minister Theresa May.

In London for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meting, President Buhari met with other world leaders and Queen Elizabeth II yesterday. Already, the president has created a storm when during a media parley earlier this week, he lambasted Nigerian youths for being lazy and wanting everything for nothing.

Yesterday, Biafran protesters demonstrated along Pall Mall, about 650 metres from Buckingham Palace as President Buhari was meeting British Prime Minister Theresa May, Queen Elizabeth and other heads of state. Among other things, the protesters, requested the dropping of charges against Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of  Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) and a referendum on the fate of Biafra.

They insisted  that no amount of blackmail would stop them from achieving the Biafra Republic. Ipob also lambasted what it called the fabricated and fake statement credited to someone who claimed to be a traditional ruler of an autonomous community in Mbaise, Imo State, which described the ongoing Biafra project as a fraud.

Ipob said the publication was an attempt to poison the minds of Biafrans and divert their attention from seeking their freedom from Nigeria. Emma Powerful, Ipob's spokesman, said the alleged traditional ruler from Mbaise who was quoted in the publication does not exist.

Mr Powerful said: “There is no traditional ruler or person of interest from Mbaise residing in Calabar who goes by the name quoted in the said story. This is another agent provocateur publication in the mould of the equally fake  Okwudili’ the non-existent, phantom Biafra leader, designed to mislead the masses into thinking that certain Igbo traditional rulers are against the current Ipob- led agitation for Biafra independence.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it is a black lie and it is highly unethical for a national publication to facilitate the dissemination of what is in essence, a fake news, all in an effort to weaken Ipob or test the resolve of our global followership."

He added that the article was calculated and designed to impugn the integrity of the struggle for Biafra liberation championed by Ipob and led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Mr Powerful added that findings by Ipob's intelligence unit and family members in and around the five communities that make up Mbaise have conclusively determined that nobody with the name of the said traditional ruler  ever existed, talk less of being crowned.

Meantime, the pan Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has disassociated itself from the proposed endorsement of President Buhari for 2019 elections by some Igbo groups. Odozi Nwodozi, the chairman of Ohanaeze, Federal Capital Territory chapter, described those planning the purported endorsement as renegades from the disbanded Ohanaeze Ndigbo youth and women's wing.