Ralph Uwazuruike Dissociates Self from IPOB and Dokubo’s Face-Off

Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, the head of the Biafra Independence Movement and Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has dissociated himself from the conflict between the Indigenous people of Biafra, IPOB and Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo, the former head of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force.

According to a statement made on his behalf by Mazi Chris Mocha, his Director of Information and Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Uwazuruike is only concerned with how IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, can be freed from the Department of State Services prison, not what Asari Dokubo said on social media.

Uwazuruike said those accusing him of conniving with Dokubo should go and verify from Dokubo if both of them had spoken as friends for the past three years. He recalled how he visited Dokubo in 2002 in Port-Harcourt when the former militant leader told him that the issue of Biafra was not one to be achieved through non-violence, stressing that violence was the only language that the Federal Government understood.

He said, “I am a non-violent crusader, known all over the world and everyone should fight his own battles, carry the cross and not call me to do that for you.

“So Asari had never worked with me on the path of non-violence struggles, and when he was championing the cause for Niger Delta people, he took up arms and ammunition against the Federal Government, which everyone could testify to.”

Uwazuruike described Dokubo as a man who matches his words with action and urged those who are insulting him on social media platforms to go and face him squarely.

He added that Dokubo’s comments asking the Federal Government not to release Nnamdi Kanu were his personal opinion, as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution as amended. He noted that his opinion cannot override those of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisations, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and South-East Governors Forum, among others, that have been demanding his release.

He urged the Federal Government to release Kanu because it is against the rule of law that one should be held incommunicado for this long in a DSS facility, even after several courts of competent jurisdiction had ordered his immediate release.