By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has declared Saturday, May 30, 2026 as a sacred day of remembrance, mourning, reflection, and honour for all Biafran heroes and heroines who paid the ultimate price in the defence of the Igbo people, and their collective right to exist.

To this end, it called for strict and total observance of the annual May 30 sit-at-home “across every town, village, and city in Biafraland in honour of all the fallen heroes and heroines.”

The separatist group noted that the day is not for politics, commerce, entertainment, weddings, burials, meetings, market activities, or social events, but a solemn day of reflection, prayer, mourning, honour, and national remembrance.

According to a statement by IPOB 's Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, on Sunday, the declaration is not a political ritual, but a sacred covenant with the fallen.

It declared the generation of 1967–1970 as men of rare breed that forged through fire, deprivation, sacrifice, and impossible odds.

IPOB described the fallen heroes as people that stood virtually alone against the combined weight of overwhelming military power, but, yet wrote one of the most astonishing resistance stories in modern history.

The statement partly reads: "They faced the geopolitical machinery of the United Kingdom, which openly backed Nigeria diplomatically and strategically throughout the war. They faced foreign weapons, Soviet arms supplied to Nigeria despite the Cold War divide, mercenaries, foreign advisers, blockade warfare, aerial bombardment, starvation policies, and hostile forces assembled from far beyond Biafra’s borders. And still they stood.

"Hungry, outgunned, isolated, abandoned by the world — but never broken in spirit. What they defended was more than territory. They defended the right of a people to survive. That is why their memory can never die.

"The world may move on. History books may reduce their sacrifice to footnotes. Governments may prefer silence. But for us, remembrance is not politics. It is sacred obligation.

"As long as one Biafran still breathes anywhere on this earth, the story of those men and women must continue to be told. Their courage must continue to be honoured. Their suffering must continue to be remembered. Because nations that forget their defenders eventually forget themselves."

While noting that every 30th May is more than remembrance and a covenant, IPOB also cited it as a solemn vow between the living and the dead, saying that their sacrifice will never be erased by propaganda, fear, or time itself.

It added: "We remember the soldiers who fought barefoot with empty stomachs.

We remember the scientists who turned scraps into survival. We remember the mothers who buried children and still found strength to carry on. We remember the civilians starved under blockade. We remember every fallen hero whose blood watered the survival of a people.

"And we remember especially the heroes and martyrs massacred at Nkpor and Onitsha during the 30 May 2016 Remembrance observances — unarmed men and women whose only offence was gathering to honour their dead and affirm their identity. Their blood joined the long and painful river of sacrifice that runs through our history.

"We shall never abandon their memory, and we shall never allow their sacrifice to be erased from the conscience of our people. And we remember them not in shame, but in honour.

"For history will forever record that a besieged people, abandoned by the world, resisted the combined machinery assembled against them and still refused to surrender their humanity."

IPOB further urged all Biafrans at home and in the diaspora to observe the sacred covenant with discipline, dignity, and reverence worthy of the sacrifices made by those who came before now.

It also encouraged governors across the 13 states of Biafraland to demonstrate moral courage and historical conscience by flying the Nigerian flag at half-mast on 30 May in honour of the millions who perished during the war and in the years that followed, noting that such gesture would not diminish anyone; rather, it would acknowledge the humanity of the dead and affirm that their lives mattered.

It added: "No people can build a just future while pretending their dead never existed.

"Their memory is now our duty. Their sacrifice is now our inheritance. And their story will live for as long as a single Biafran remains upon the face of this earth. 30th May, 2026, we remember them all."

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