PHOTOS: Police Kills Seven During Pro-Biafra Rally

No less than seven people were killed, and about 30 more injured, most of them critically, when the Nigerian police and military reportedly opened fire dispersing a crowd of the pro-Biafra marchers at Onitsha in Anambra state on Sunday.

According to some reports from Anambra state, three people were fatally shot dead on the spot and 30 others got bullet wounds when the police and Nigerian navy opened fire to disperse the crowd of the pro-Biafra marchers in Onitsha on Sunday.

More than twenty people were critically wounded and by this Monday morning there were seven people dead as a result of shooting at the demonstrators.

The death toll hasn’t been verified officially yet, but the reports claim that those people were hit with stray bullets. The crowd gathered under the aegis of the Indigenous People of Biafra which issued official statement condemning the shooting at the unarmed people.

It claims that over 30 people got shot and 7 people were confirmed dead on Monday while 20 more were critically wounded.“How come our security men find it so easy to kill peaceful IPOB members but won’t lift a finger against the deadly Boko Haram? These brothers were peaceful in their engagement, they weren’t radical or causing any harm according to eye witnesses, they weren’t armed, so why shoot at them?” was said in the IPOB statement.

The agitation for the actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra has been on for some time now. The Republic of Biafra came about when a secessionist state situated in south-eastern of Nigeria tried to break away from Nigeria but were stopped. Biafra was inhabited mostly by the Igbo people and was in existence from 30th May 1967 to 15th January 1970.

The Movement for the Actualization of State of Biafra (MASSOB) is yet to give up the fight to secede from Nigeria. The group has even established a radio station, called Radio Biafra somewhere in Europe.