Militants Give FG 48-Hour Ultimatum To Release Corpses Of ‘Dead’ Pro-Biafra Agitators

A resurgent militant group in the Niger Delta has on Wednesday declared war on security agents, even as it gave the President Muhammadu Buhari led government till Friday, June 3, 2016 to release the corpses of 10 pro-Biafra agitators killed in southeast Nigeria.

On Monday, about 10 supporters of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) were killed during a clash with security agencies in Onitsha, Anambra State.

Declaring the 48-hour ultimatum via a statement issued on social media on Wednesday, the militants said failure to comply would lead to more uprising, just as they said the killing of the agitators was an “unprovoked massacre of peace-loving Biafra people.”

“The Nigerian government killed many innocent people. So many of the Niger Delta militants witnessed what happened in Onitsha. We are too pained to keep quiet.”

“If Federal Government fails to release them (corpses) by Friday, June 3, 2016, they will hear from us from Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Edo States,” the militants said.

The militants, under the leaderships of Preciuos Iyoyo (General Playboy) and General Ben of the Niger Delta Peoples Democratic Front (NDPDF) and the Concerned Militant Leaders (CML), respectively, said the decision was taken after an emergency meeting of leaders of the various militant groups in the region.

General Ben said what the Federal Government did by the activities of soldiers and policemen, last Monday, was a clear declaration of war on innocent and helpless Nigerians.

“It is now war between the militants and security men. Since innocent and helpless citizens, especially from the South-South and the South-East, have been marked out for extinction, we will defend our people.

“We will go after security men in an unprecedented manner, both on sea and land. The Federal Government should expect more attacks from us. We will tell the Federal Government that the Niger Delta region is our terrain and no amount of military troops and their armoury will dampen our spirit.”