 |
|
BBC
|
The police have
warned members of a secessionist movement calling for the creation of
the breakaway state of Biafra to stop "threatening public order". It follows a protest
yesterday by activists of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB)
group in the south-east of the country.
On
Tuesday, police said protesters attempted to block the strategic bridge
across the Niger river, which links the south-east with the rest of Nigeria and
was the de facto border during the 1967-1970 civil war, Reuters news agency
reports.
BBC Africa Live reports that:
The
protests disrupted business activity and caused huge
traffic jams in Onitsha town, the main regional city.
"The
restoration and maintenance of law and public order, and protection of lives
and property remain sacred and the statutory mandate of the Nigeria
Police," the force said in a statement.
The
mainly ethnic Igbo activists are calling for the release of one of their
leaders, Nnamdi Kanu, who has been in detention for two months.
Authorities
have accused him of treason.
The
first Biafra republic was declared in 1967 but the military defeated the
secessionists after a three-year conflict.
More than one million
people lost their lives, mostly because of hunger caused by the civil war.
No comments:
Post a Comment