The Biafra Nations League (BNL) has threatened to pull down any flag hoisted at half mask as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari who declared national mourning over the death of the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru. The Late COAS Attahiru died in a military plane crash in Kaduna last Friday with some other military officers.
BNL National Leader, Princewill Chimezie Richard; the Deputy National Leader and Head of Operations, Ebuta Akor Takon; and the Chief Head of Operations, Henry Edet; in a joint statement in the Bakassi Peninsula, protested that late Lt. Gen. Attahiru should not be honoured in the southeast after the Nigerian Army killed unarmed supporters of the Biafran liberation struggle. They further recalled the varieties of military operations, including “Operation Python Dance” in which many Igbo youths were killed by the army.
The BNL leaders also told President Buhari that no officer represented the southeast in the security meeting he held with the Army Chief and other security agencies, wherein, the southeast security was the major issue of deliberation at the meeting. They further alleged that the Kaduna trip was also to discuss on how to launch more attacks in the southeast, saying that was the reason no Igbo officer or any officer from the southern minority was selected to join the late Army Chief to Kaduna.
BNL National Leader, Princewill Chimezie Richard; the Deputy National Leader and Head of Operations, Ebuta Akor Takon; and the Chief Head of Operations, Henry Edet; in the joint statement, therefore, ordered southeast and south-south people “to disregard the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari to fly the national flag halfway in honour of the Late Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Attahiru, from Monday to Wednesday.” They also called on the southeast people not to participate in the national mourning declared by the Nigerian president.
The BNL leaders, thereafter, assured that “the Biafran flag will fly in full in the Bakassi Peninsula on May 30 in honour of Late General Chukwu Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, General Philip Effiong, and all Biafran heroes.” They insisted that the ban on international vessels into the Biafra territory remains intact.