Chinedu Eze
24 March 2006
Abakaliki — State Security Service (SSS) has arrested 25 members of Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) who were alleged to be disrupting the on-going census exercise in Ebonyi State.
The 25 members are said to be officials of the unlawful organization in the state.
According to the deputy director of SSS, Mr. John Duru, who spoke to journalists in Abakaliki on yesterday, weeks before the head count, the intelligence officers learnt that the group planned to force people in the South East to boycott the exercise and had been distributing leaflets, inciting them to shun the head count.
With that information, SSS in the state swung into action, disrupting their meetings in various parts of the state and seizing those leaflets and other materials including the Biafran flags and finally arresting the 25 officers who would be charged to court on Monday.
Duru disclosed that the intelligence organization has prevented the MASSOB members from grouping in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, so they resorted to meeting in different rural communities in the state, disclosing that SSS adopted a strategy whereby MASSOB members were not allowed to stay together to plan anything in the state and in this way it has disrupted their meetings in Ezza East, Okposi and Ishielu council areas of the state.
He recalled that few months ago the illegal organization disguised as a religious association and wanted to hold a meeting at People's Club hall in Abakaliki, but the meeting was disrupted by SSS who arrested many of the MASSOB members.
The senior SSS officer noted that MASSOB is a threat to the unity of Nigeria, saying that their efforts to disrupt or make people to boycott the census exercise in the state has been thwarted, adding that reports made available to the organization indicated that the illegal group is also persuading people to shun the head count in other states in the South East.
He stated that SSS has learnt that in some states in the zone individuals are now shunning the exercise due to incitement from MASSOB, stressing that the boycott of the exercise by anybody or groups of people will have adverse implication to the future economic and social development of the country.
Meanwhile, as at Thursday many residents of Abakaliki were yet to be counted as many have complained that they had stayed at home waiting for the enumerators who were yet to show up.
Some National Population Commission officials who spoke to journalists said that their problems had been inadequate materials and limited manpower as non payment of enumerators after their training last week discouraged many of them who refused to turn up for the real exercise, expressing fear that they might not be paid at the end of the exercise.
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