Police arrest 45 people in violent southeast secessionist protests

Anti-riot police arrested 45 protestors in the southeast Nigerian town of Onitsha during region-wide demonstrations called by a banned secessionist group, police officials and witnesses said on Thursday. The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) said it called protests held in several southeastern cities on Wednesday to protest alleged harassment of its members by the security forces and to intensify its demand for secession. At one protest in Onitsha, Anambra State, a policeman sent to stop the protesters was shot dead by MASSOB activists, according to police. "Four policemen were shot by the MASSOB men and one died on the spot, with the rest still in hospital," said police spokesman Kolapo Sofoluwe. The police remain on a high alert and ready to arrest any protestor attempting to take to the streets without police permission, he said. "Anybody who comes out in the name of MASSOB or any other banned organisation will definitely be arrested," said Sofolouwe. More than three decades after the bloody Biafra war, fought to claim independence for the oil rich southeast, MASSOB continues to draw large crowds for its rallies, demonstrations, boycotts and stay-at-home protests, often featuring symbolic declarations of independence. However, MASSOB denies secessionist efforts are violent these days and says members would not have shot on police. "We're non-violent, we did not attack the police," Tony Franks, a spokesman for the group, told IRIN. He accused the police of opening fire on unarmed protesters at Onitsha and injuring two people. He said police brutality was the very reason for the protest. "We called a nationwide protest against police brutality on our members, especially our leader," Franks said. Leader and founder of MASSOB, Ralph Uwazurike, has spent the last week in hiding after accusing a top police chief of offering to ease off security surveillance of his activities in return for five million Naira, or US $37,878. Uwazuruike claims that successive governments have oppressed and discriminated against Nigeria's Igbos, the ethnic group that dominates the south east. His campaigns have struck a chord among thousands of jobless Igbo youths born after the 1967 civil war but who have joined MASSOB's ranks. Human rights groups say that dozens of pro-Biafran activists have been killed over the last six years for campaigning for such beliefs, with hundreds still in detention after being arrested by the police at marches and rallies organised by MASSOB.