The National Director of Information, Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Sunday Okereafor, said the monarchs in the South-East should be held responsible for incessant killings and attacks in the geo-political zone.
The group alleged that the monarchs collected money from the Fulani herdsmen and allowed them into the zone.
Okereafor said this in an interview with The PUNCH on Friday.
Okereafor said, “They (monarchs) brought Fulani herdsmen to our land. The Fulani herdmen gave them money to come into our land and they are all over in our bushes.
“I school in the North. Before a Fulani man will come into your community, they must first see the monarch. After seeing the monarch, they will start operating in your bushes.
“Formally they pay the monarchs N100,000. Now it is N500, 000. You can imagine yourself, how can a monarch leave his community, his town for the city?
“Tell me what he will do there. The monarchs left our community down to the city. Now the Fulani herdsmen are approaching, kidnapping our bishops and our pastors and taking people hostage.”
The MASSOB spokesman said such killings would no longer be tolerated in the area, saying no one group has a monopoly on violence.
Okereafor warned the perpetrators, especially the Fulani herdsmen to desist from such wicked acts forthwith or be ready to leave the South-East.
“It is becoming unbearable. We are now calling the Muslims in the South-East to stop kidnapping and stop killing our people.
“It is not only them who knows how to kidnap and kill in the church. If these killings and kidnappings continue, their mosques will be attacked. They should stop insulting our clerics.
“Can we insult the Imam in Owerri, in Port Harcourt, Aba or Umuahia? It is not possible. But they (herdsmen) are here insulting our clerics and pilgrims and taking them hostage.
“So, we are telling the youths in the South-East to rise up now and search all the bushes in the South-East and chase them out of our land.
“So, the monarchs should be held responsible because they know how the Fulani come into our land. Formally, the Fulani doesn’t stay in the bush.
“They patrol in the land and after that they return to where they come from. But this time around, they are living in our bushes.
“Every day by 2 am you will see them patrolling our villages. They know all the corners and link roads of our villages
“So any further attack or kidnap in our communities, our churches and clerics, we will know how to deal with them.
“They should not push it to the wall. We allow them on our land because we are not violent. But they should not push us to the wall,” Okereafor stated.
