The National President of the Oodua People’s Congress, Chief Gani Adams, has said the Federal Government must hold talks with the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra and others agitating for Biafra.
According to Adams, it is only through dialogue that the agitators can be made to drop the idea of a Biafra state; as the use of force is incapable of guaranteeing the unity of the country.
The OPC leader spoke about the agitation and the clash between the Nigerian Army and the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in Osogbo after he was honoured as a culture ambassador by the Nigeria Union of Journalists Correspondents Chapel, Osun State.
He said, “I will just say that they (Biafra agitators) are entitled to their own self-determination. Look, there is a law in Africa that recognises right to self-determination. Also, there is a law in United Nations that recognises right to self-determination. There is a country in the United Nations that has a population of not up to 50,000 and their flag is at the United Nations.
“You can’t use force to co-opt people for the unity of Nigeria; you have to listen to their agitation. If we cannot give you secession, should we give you statism or regionalism? That is a process of negotiating. The British did not use force against Scotland when it seceded from Britain, and there is Catalona in Spain that wants to pull out, they didn’t use force against them.”
He warned that the killing of five supporters of Biafra, who were celebrating the Federal High Court ruling ordering the unconditional release of Radio Biafra Director, Nnamdi Kanu, was a very serious problem and uncalled for.
Adams condemned the killing of members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria by soldiers in Zaria.
He said it was wrong for soldiers to have opened fire on the defenceless members of the sect for allegedly blocking the road and attacking the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai.
“What happened in Kaduna is not what Nigerians are expecting right now, especially with the crisis of Boko Haram, the agitation of the MASSOB. I will appeal to the military and other security agencies to be calm when they have provocation from different citizens of this country,” he said.
“In civilised country, you don’t kill your citizens like that, even when they provoke you, you should pamper them in order to avoid such ugly situation. Even though they embarrassed the Chief of Army Staff, they (the army) should have disarmed them and arrest the leader for questioning and not using weapon to kill people like that. International community will not overlook such a thing.
“Killing armless and innocent people like fowl should not be accepted in any sane democracy. The president have to be very careful, he should not play into the hands of some people.”
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