By John Okoro reporting from Nsude town, Enugu State, Nigeria.
Nsude Indigenous Christian Association (NICA) the Umbrella body of all Christians in Nsude Town, Enugu South LGA, Enugu State South East of Nigeria want the Nigeria authorities to help them locate the whereabouts of one of their town Indigenes Mr. Ozongwu Sunday Ikechukwu who unconfirmed sources indicate s he vanished into thin air since last year 2023 after reportedly attending a Night vigil candle light Prayer Procession Program organized by the Indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB) in Amaifeke village Orlu in Imo State South East of Nigeria last year.
Making this demand while unveiling a twenty one days prayers and fasting program set to be organized by the group to attract abundance blessings for all Indigenes of the town during a press conference addressed by the group recently, Pastor Peter Ugwuanyi , the chairman of the group intimated journalists that their brother a well-known Igbo tribe and state of Biafra Independence movement activist,who also is a key member of IPOB in the town has been having brushes with Nigeria Security Services authorities on account of his deep involvement in championing the move for Igbos in Nigeria to be given a separate home land from Nigeria.
Saying that the association was compelled to search for their brother Mr. Ozongwu Sunday Ikechukwu based on series of bad reports which their brother relations are bringing to them which are indicating that their brother may not be alive, Pastor Ugwuanyi noted that the association had searched for their brother in almost all security services cells as well as prisons in Nigeria but that up till now all their efforts has not yielded positive.
The clergy man while also admitting that they are aware that their brother Mr. Ozongwu Sunday Ikechukwu has been having serious confrontations with the Nigerian security services on account of his beliefs that the state of Biafra must be carved out from Nigeria and granted sovereign independence. He noted that they reliably gathered from close relations of the Biafra activist that on may 29th 2023 that he was one of IPOB members that went for a candle light procession prayer program at Amaifeke Orlu Imo State south east of Nigeria last year, a program usually organized globally by IPOB to honour gallant Biafrians who lost their lives during the last Nigerian civil war that occurred in 1966-70. He also revealed that his association findings from Biafra agitators and IPOB members who attended the said event who said that they were lucky to have escaped alive that while the program was going on on the said night that hoodwearing Nigeria security services personnel invaded the venue, shot sporadically, wounded many and arrested about 50 people while some escaped unhurt.
Narrating further, he stated that the same agitators who escaped discreetly divulged to them that Nigeria security forces while interrogating those arrested was told that their brother Mr. Ozongwu Sunday Ikechukwu was named by those IPOB members arrested that night that he was one of the key organizers of the event which prompted Nigeria security forces to declare a manhunt for him and others while vowing that all of them if caught will be dealt with for engaging in anti-Nigeria sovereign state activities just as they assured that they will flush out the organization in Nigeria.
Newsmen who are following the matter while investigating the development further gathered from close relations of Mr. Ozongwu Sunday Ikechukwu and some citizens of the town who knows the family that the mother of Mr. Ozongwu Sunday Ikechukwu on learning that her child has disappeared and is yet to be seen developed shock, suffered stroke and was rushed to hospital in Enugu state where she stayed for a brief period and gave up the ghost on September 8th 2023 last year.
Reacting to this when contacted by journalists investigating the matter, the Nigerian security services said that as far as they are concerned that IPOB is a banned organization in Nigeria and has been classified as a terrorist organization stressing that any member of the organisation caught engaging in action inimical to the cooperate existence of Nigeria will be treated as enemies of the Nigeria nation adding that members of the organization are always in their wanted list and if apprehended will be tried and appropriate punishment meted to them including that of Mr Ozongwu Sunday Ikechukwu.
