YENAGOA The Nigerian police force said they
arrested more than 80 members of a Biafran separatist movement on Friday during
one of a series of protests in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, against the detention of
the group's leader.
The 78 men and five women were detained
in a motorpark in Yenagoa, "because they want to foment troubles and
unleash mayhem" said Bayelsa police spokesman Anisim Butswat.
Witnesses reported other rallies in at
least four other areas, and one activist said police fired tear gas at marchers
from Imo state walking to Bayelsa state border, though there was no independent
confirmation.
Secessionist feeling has continued to
simmer in the region since the Biafra separatist rebellion tipped the country
into a 1967-70 civil war that killed an estimated 1 million people.
The Indigenous Peoples of Biafra group
called for a "million man march" on Friday after their leader Nnamdi
Kanu was arrested in Nigeria on charges relating to broadcasts by his Radio
Biafra station.
It was not immediately clear if the
group had attracted anywhere near that number of people onto the streets.
No comments:
Post a Comment