Palpable tension is building up in the south east as the Abia State Police command has arrested 51 suspected members of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, who held procession on some streets of Umuahia.

he suspects were 10 females and 41 males, who police said disguised as Jewish worshippers to confuse the people of the state. The command claimed they were out to cause disorder and breach the peace in the state.

But in a swift reaction, the suspects maintained that they are Jewish adherents performing one of their religious obligation of end of year procession and was not out to cause any trouble.

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, condemned the arrest, saying what the people did was in conformity with the Jewish religion.

“They are Jewish faithful in solidarity with the Biafran cause. What they did was right. We support them. Even the other religious bodies such as Catholic and Anglican have their own periods when they hold their own procession ceremonies. They performed their religious obligation and they have sympathy for Biafra. We were not involved but we support what they did,” Comrade Uchenna Madu, leader of MASSOB said in a telephone interview

•Excerpted from The Vanguard report