21st August, 2014
Four people were feared dead and many injured following a clash between factions of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, at the group’s headquarters in Okwe, Onuimo Local Government of Imo State, southeast Nigeria.
It was reported that the fracas ensued between the factions over the leadership of the group.
According to reports, the incident occurred when many armed thugs stormed the MASSOB headquarters and fought the commanders of the movement who had earlier sacked their leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike and took over the headquarters.
When contacted on phone, the National Secretary of the movement, Comrade Ugwuoke Ibem Ugwuoke, told newsmen that the thugs were allegedly recruited by the embattled leader, Uwazuruike, to take over the headquarters but they were resisted by the MASSOB commanders.
Ugwuoke claimed that, “So many people have been wounded in the early morning attack and those people were not members of MASSOB but were hired from Onitsha to come and kill us but we overpowered them and we have taken over the headquarters.
When contacted, Uwazuruike said that he was not aware of such incident.
“I got the information that there was a crisis at Okwe a few minutes ago and I will get in touch with my administrators to know what was happening. There was no problem, except that some of the security men working at the headquarters were transferred but were yet to relocate. That may have been misconstrued as disobedience to my instructions,” he said.