Biafra group formally applied for UN membership

A pro-Biafran group, Biafra Zionist Movement (BZM), has formally applied that Biafra be accorded the status of an observer member of the United Nations. 

Briefing newsmen in Enugu yesterday, President of the group, Mr. Benjamin Onwuka, said the application was submitted to the UN Security Council on August 6. 

Onwuka who said his group was working towards projecting Biafra to the economic community, noted that the move was the first of its kind since the struggle for an Independent State of Biafra. He disclosed that his group had also, through the African Union (AU) Secretariat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, requested for a meeting of all AU heads of state and governments to be convened in Kampala on October 22.


Onwuka explained that with the application, the UN membership would give Biafra the recognition and support it had lacked since the republic was born on May 30, 1967. “The UN would now have the mandate and power to intervene, investigate and issue arrest against anyone who uses violence or force to kill Biafrans in their quest for self-determination.

“It would now be against international law for the Nigerian State, through its president, governors or security forces to use force to kill Biafrans either as individuals or groups.” 

The BZM leader disclosed that the application was based on the grounds that, “the security of life and property of the Biafran people were no longer guaranteed in the entity called Nigeria. “It is also clear that the right of the Biafran people to practice their religion and freedom of association is no longer safe and guaranteed in Nigeria.

“Therefore the people of Biafra have resolved that on November 5, 2012 we shall be re-declaring our independence and opt out of Nigeria in order that we Biafran people can guarantee and protect the Biafran peoples’ right to practice their religion without being bombed.” 

On the recent statement where MASSOB leader, Ralph Uwazuruike, dissociated himself from the declaration in November, Onwuka described him as one who had lost faith in the struggle. “We have information about him and his preference for Nigeria and her politics, so we are not interested in him or what he thinks. The struggle for Biafra is on and advancing; we are determined and we shall realise the dreams of our people.