83 Biafran separatists arrested in Yenagoa

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.

The Ikemba Nnewi, Ojukwu is dead!

Ikemba Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu,the fiery former Biafran leader wish of dying on January 13 was cut short today as he passed on at the age 0f 78 after months battling with a stroke in a United Kingdom hospital.

Ojukwu was born on November 4, 1933 in Zungeru, Niger State to Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu.

He had his early education in Lagos, before he left the country at 13 for the United Kingdom to study at Epsom College, England. He left Epsom at 18 for Lincoln College, Oxford.
At Oxford University, he obtained a bachelor's degree in modern history. He returned to Nigeria in 1956.
He later earned a masters degree in history at Lincoln College, Oxford University. Ojukwu joined the Eastern Nigeria Civil Service as an Administrative Officer at Udi.
In 1957, within months of working with the colonial civil service, he left to join the Army as one of the few university graduates taken as a recruit.
He rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and became the military governor of the then Eastern Nigeria until he announced the secession of Biafra from Nigeria.

A civil war broke out during which he installed himself as head of state of the People's Army. The war lasted for two and half years, ending on January 12, 1970. He went on self exile in Cote d' Ivoire until he was pardoned by former President Shehu Shagari.