South-South is not part of Biafra – IYC tells group

chika ebuzor

June 6, 2017 10:00 PM

This is coming on the heels of a comment made by the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has said that the South-South region is not part of Biafra.

This is coming on the heels of a comment made by the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Solomon Chukwu.

Chukwu had earlier claimed that all the states in the South-South region belong to the Biafra nation.

According to Punch, the IYC spokesman, Henry Iyalla said the struggle for Niger Delta independence existed before the call for a Biafra state.

Iyalla also said “The attention of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide has been drawn to a statement credited to one MASSOB leader, Solomon Chukwu, published in some newspapers of Tuesday June 6, 2017, declaring that the South-South region is included in the territory of Biafra which MASSOB, IPOB and other self-determination movements are agitating for.

“This comment has been made by other Biafra leaders in different fora. For the records, the IYC wishes to state as follows; that the Ijaw and Niger Delta people identifies with the Biafra struggle for self-determination.

“However, we wish to state clearly that the Ijaw and Niger Delta struggle for self-determination predates the Biafra agitations. It is on record that even before the Biafra declaration of independence in 1967, Major Jasper Adaka Boro, during the 12 days revolution, declared a Niger Delta Republic in 1966.

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“This was before the advent and struggle for the actualisation of Biafra. The Ijaw and Niger Delta people had always maintained separate and distinct identity from our Igbo brothers of the South East.”

Meanwhile, a group of Northern youths under the aegis of The Kaduna Declaration has asked all South-Easterners leaving in the North to leave the region in 90 days.

chika ebuzor