Igbo traders under the umbrella of South-East Amalgamated Markets Traders Association (SEAMATA) have declared their support for pro-Biafra agitators a few weeks after they condemned the protests.
The group had on Tuesday, November 24 released a statement condemning the protests in the markets and declared their support for President Muhammadu Buhari.
Part of the statement had read: “We are constrained to react to the continuous calls for close of businesses in the zone in protest and solidarity for Biafra.
“Traders in the South-East wish to dissociate ourselves from MASSOB and IPOB. We have nothing to do whatsoever with these lawless groups.
“The difficulties and hardship, which traders and residents in general suffer during these protests, had made the traders to react to the situation and the development and make its position very clear and unambiguous.
“The invasion of markets and other business outfits and the destruction of property of individuals like shops and vehicles in the name of pro-Biafra protest is not only condemnable but unacceptable.
“We are yet to understand the wisdom in the protest where the properties and other valuables and belongings of the Igbo are either vandalised or destroyed by fellow Igbo in the name of Pro-Biafra protest.
Vanguard reports however, in a statement signed by Chief Okwudili Ezenwankwo and Mr. Temple Udeh, the president and secretary of the group, the traders declared their support for the actualisation of Biafra. They however said they were against the action of some miscreants who they claimed had infiltrated the agitators to steal in the markets.
“To set the record straight and for the purposes of clarity, the traders are not challenging the constitutional right of peaceful assembly of any one.
We only condemned the attitude of the protesters (or miscreants that infiltrated them) that went into markets, chased the traders out and closed the entrances to the market.
“It was the maturity of the leadership that directed the security men in these markets not to challenge them, that forestalled casualties. The protest was not peaceful as it recorded casualities. If the Pro-Biafra protesters held their protest in a field or any stadium, there wouldn’t have been any issue to warrant all these misrepresentation of intentions”
The group noted that when Boko Haram prisoners were brought to Anambra, there was a peaceful protest that did not disturb the traders in the market which was unlike the pro-Biafra protests that has resulted in vandalism and looting of shops.
“That we all are Igbos both traders and protesters are not in contention, that the problem of one Igbo man shall attract the sympathy of the other is stressing the obvious. But it is against natural justice and fairness to create a more difficult problem as a solution to an existing one.
“If the protests were in an open field or stadium, those that put the entire Igbo in this mess couldn’t have had the opportunity.
The protesters could even decide to sleep in the venue for days as are witnessed in other parts of the countries without disturbance.
The statement of the traders is for the protesters to leave the market. The traders never disowned anybody or group as reported in some quarters.”
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