There was pandemonium in Aba, the Abia State commercial nerve centre, as combined security agencies made up of army and police shot dead five members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, who were peacefully protesting against the release of their detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Kanu, who was renditioned to Nigeria from Kenya after his arrest and alleged torture had been in solitary confinement at the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021.
It had been reported that both the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal had barred the Nigeria government from trying Kanu, while declared his arrest and incarceration as illegal.
The United Nations working group on arbitrary detention has also found Kanu’s arrest and detention illegal and gave president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration six months to release Kanu and pay him reparations, an opinion the federal government didn’t adhered to and had since elapsed in December 31, 2022.
However, the protesters who were mainly young men and women staged a peaceful protest at the city of Aba, chanting songs calling for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, their leader.
The protesters, in a video which has gone viral on social media sang and danced along the streets of Aba, while demanding the release of their leader, Kanu who had been in DSS detention since June 2021.
Also, in another video, gunshots were heard and a voice behind the video said they were being shot at by the Nigerian security who came to disperse them from protesting.
Some residents, who confirmed the gunshots to SaharaReporters on telephone, said they were yet to ascertain casualties, but the protesters were being shot at by the combined team of police and military along Osusu by Faulks road, Aba.
Another source who gave his name to Celestine Omeje told SaharaReporters that he saw five protesters that were killed as they were being moved in waiting vehicles of the soldiers.
“I can authoritatively inform you that the operatives killed five protesters and carried their bodies to their vehicle. More people could have been killed but I saw five people which the soldiers were carrying to their vehicles. I don’t why there was shooting and killing. The protesters were adorned with white clothes and they were only singing and dancing.
“Why every little thing the security agencies shoot and kill Igbo youths for no justifiable reason. In Lagos Igbo youths are being killed and properties and business being burnt systematically, security agencies have not arrested anyone or made any comment. It is unacceptable and condemnable.”
When contacted on telephone, the Spokesman of the Abia State Police Command, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, confirmed the incident but couldn’t provide any details.
He said, “I will soon issue statement on the incident.”
