In March they caused a tremor of a sort in the Coal City of Enugu when they attempted to take over the Government House one early morning.

While most of them were able to elude the police on that occasion, leaders of the Biafra Zionist Federation (BZF) were not second time lucky yesterday when they attempted to forcibly take over the Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS) yesterday morning so as to announce the rebirth of the shortlived Republic of Biafra.

The accompanying photograph shows the 13 BZF chieftains, including their leader, Benjamin Igwe Onwuka, as they were paraded at the headquarters of the Enugu State Police Command.

Apart from Onwuka, other BZF activists arrested and paraded before newsmen are Paulinus Uzoegbu, Michael Oleinya, Ndubuisi Nnamchi, Bethrand Obiekwe, Kelvin Ekeh, Abraham Ugwu, Chukwuma Alogius, Ijaga Sampson, Josephat Nwodo, Nwonu Fidelis and Uduma Uduma.

According to Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, “When they went to the ESBS, they gained entrance into the studio and wanted the workers to give them access to make a live broadcast to the people of Nigeria.

“In the broadcast they had on a CD rom where the details of what they wanted to tell members of the public.

“They made a summary of what they had on the CD rom, on a sheet of paper and the highlight of it are; an appeal calling for all boys in Obiagu, (Enugu) to come out, all boys from Ogui (Enugu) to come out, all boys in Enugu State to come out; they also asked students to come out, those people with KekeNapep (tricycles) to come out.

“They wanted to order all businesses closed today (yesterday); all schools to be closed, all markets to be closed and all government officials to surrender all property in their possession before mid-day. You can see these people were on a mission of trying to over-throw the government and it is something that we will never tolerate.

“Recall that in March this year, they had attacked Government House, Enugu. We had earlier declared their leader (Onwuka) wanted. The same group of BZF led by their leader, Benjamin Onwuka invaded the ESBS with the intention that after the broadcast, they will set the place ablaze.

“They carried with them a lot of arms, machetes, 25 litres of petrol, 46 empty beer bottles and one BZF flag and some CDs. The purpose of going there with petrol and bottles, you know when you put petrol inside a bottle and shake it and throw it into a building, it will inflame. They went there also with guns because when the policemen confronted them, they shot a sergeant and killed him and in the process of trying to prevent them from setting the place ablaze, they also had a casualty, one of them was shot dead. About 13 of them were arrested including the leader, Benjamin Onwuka.”

The Police Commissioner did not allow newsmen to ask the suspects any question, saying “it will mean giving them opportunity to say what they wanted to announce in the live broadcast.”

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