In a statement made available to one of our correspondents in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, IPOB explained that though MASSOB assisted in funding the radio station, the arrangement only lasted from April to July 2009.
The statement, signed by the Deputy Leader of IPOB, who is also the Deputy Director of Radio Biafra, Uche Mefor, noted that the station later went off-air and eventually shut down in December 2009.
It insisted that MASSOB, which has since transformed into Biafra Independence Movement, had nothing to do with Radio Biafra.
The statement added, “The entire humanity is hereby notified that MASSOB is not the owner of Radio Biafra. Uwazuruike is not the owner of Radio Biafra.
“Radio Biafra first operated as ‘Broadcasting Corporation of Biafra’ in the 1960s in the face of genocidal war of extermination propagated by the northern Nigerian military dictators who spearheaded their jihadism against the Biafrans.”
Also, MASSOB on Saturday called on the Federal Government to immediately release its members who were labelled supporters of IPOB, arrested and detained by security agents.
MASSOB said eight of its members were arrested by security agents on September 13, 2017, while they were on their way to Onitsha, Anambra State, to celebrate the group’s 18th anniversary.
Its National Director of Information, Mr. Sunday Okereafor, told newsmen that security agencies should have known the difference between IPOB members and MASSOB followers.
Okereafor alleged that the MASSOB members were detained in Afara Prison in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
He added that his group had since its existence embraced non-violence as its method of agitation and wondered why police and soldiers would contemplate arresting and detaining them.
He listed the names of five of the eight arrested MASSOB members as Igwe Ndukwe, Onyebuchi Nmeregini, I. Ugonna, ThankGod Udeh and Ugwu Emeka.
He said, “We are calling on the Attorney General of the Federation and the Attorney General of Abia State to release them. They should leave MASSOB alone because MASSOB is not violent. Those arrested are not IPOB members. They are MASSOB members.’’
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