Simon Ekpa, a well-known separatist and pro-Biafra activist, has responded to the plea by US Congressmen for Nigerians to be granted Temporary Protected Status due to the severe insecurity in their country.
The self-styled Prime of the Biafra Republic Government in Exile, BRGIE, said in a statement on Thursday that the Igbos’ experience with insecurity in Nigeria is sufficient justification for the designation of TPS for Nigerians living in the United States.
Alejandro Mayorkas asked for the Secretary of U.S. Homeland Security to designate Nigeria for Temporary Protected Status in a letter dated May 9 2023 that was signed by 23 members of the U.S. Congress and addressed to him.
TPS is an immigration provision that enables people to live and work in the United States legally if they are from countries with dangerous conditions.
In this Backdrop, Ekpa claimed that Igbos are dangerous in Nigeria and that it is a positive development that Americans have decided to grant TPS to Nigerians.
He pointed out that the predicament further supports Biafras’s call for a peaceful referendum.
The American government should take the Igbo nation of Nigeria’s peaceful referendum into consideration, the lawyer in Finland pleaded.
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Prior to this, BRGIE appealed for a peaceful evacuation from Nigeria in a letter to the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and International Criminal Court.
BRGIE @BiafraRGIE BREAKING! @congressdotgov @SecMayorkas @EleanorNorton @RepYvetteClarke @BarbaraLeeForCA
Ref: DESIGNATION OF NIGERIA AS HAVING TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS(TPS).We wish to inform the United States Government through the U.S. Congress that the Indigenous People… pic.twitter.com/lrXktXWnHi
— Simon Ekpa (@simon_ekpa) May 18, 2023
The statement read: ” We wish to inform the United States Government through the U.S. Congress that the Indigenous People of Biafra (Old Eastern Region of Nigeria) have been living under the existential threat of destruction in Nigeria since 1966, and living conditions have recently worsened. Hence, the Biafra people want the United States Government to designate Temporary Protected Status to Nigerians because of the Indigenous People of Biafra’s resolve to exit Nigeria through a peaceful and bloodless referendum.
“The Nigerian government is hunting down Indigenous People of Biafra all over Nigeria. Any Indigenous Person of Biafra coming into Nigeria from abroad will be profiled, picked up from the airport, harassed, intimidated, put into captivity in any dungeon chosen by terrorists in government uniforms, and extrajudicially killed for no reason known to any civil law.
“We appeal to the United States Government to hasten the designation of Nigeria as to have Temporary Protected Status to enable dynamic law-abiding people of Biafra to remain wherever they are present because any attempting to return to Nigeria will amount to coming into harm’s way or death.
“Biafrans occupy the territories of the South Eastern Region of Nigeria, estimated at over 75 million people, some living in Nigeria and others dispersed worldwide, with many in America contributing to America’s prosperity. Biafra existed as an independent nation from 1966 to 1970 when Nigeria and its allies fought and annexed Biafra into Nigeria in 1970.
“The Biafra Republic Government in Exile (BRGIE) of the Indigenous People of Biafra is established to undertake the political and administrative governance of the nation of Biafra from outside Biafran territory. The BRGIE undertakes diplomatic and foreign relationships, arrangements and agreements, negotiations and pacts with other countries and interest organizations of the world on behalf of the Biafran People. They are to be accorded all diplomatic privileges as due to any government official of their respective level.
“Through their government in exile, Biafrans are requesting support from the United States of America and its citizens to assist Biafra’s peaceful exit from Nigeria.
“After the Nigeria-Biafra war in 1970, which was necessitated by social injustice and tribal rivalry, the Federal Government of Nigeria implemented an unwritten policy to keep Biafraland undeveloped and its people poor. The Federal Government of Nigeria shut down seaports in Biafraland before 1960. There are no functional seaports, no functional international airports, no electricity, no running water and no good roads in Biafraland, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the indigenous people of Biafra to stay in their ancestral homeland to do any meaningful or profitable business. It has led to the migration of Biafrans from rural to urban areas in Nigeria, including other cities worldwide.
“We wish to remind you that Fedrick Lugard’s amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorate of what is today’s Nigeria, which was established in 1914, was to last for 100 years. 100 years have expired.
“We wish to remind you also that the amalgamation agreement that merged Nigeria into one country was for the sole interest of the British Crown, without any consideration for the welfare and development of the indigenous people. The Amalgamation Agreement of 1914 stated that after 100 years, any tribe, group or region that did not want to continue in the Union would be free to exit the Union called Nigeria. The year 2023 makes that amalgamation agreement 109 years, so by implication, the amalgamation agreement has expired. The Amalgamation agreement is binding, and Nigeria should and must be renegotiated and freedom granted to groups that wish to exit the Nigerian Union, especially Biafrans.
“Nigeria comprises several nation states, distinct and parallel with dangerous diversity. There is no similarity or commonality between the people of the South and the Northern protectorates. Hence the amalgamation is very selfishly and wickedly conceived and implemented.
“This explains why it was hurriedly signed into law without consultation with the indigenous people. Since the British imposed amalgamation, there has been a constant rift between the tribes. Each tribe is suspicious of the others, and each fights to dominate the others. Nigeria has not progressed because the relationships between the tribes have remained cantankerous and pugnacious.
“Biafrans are being killed recklessly in Nigeria today like no other time in Nigeria’s history. The Biafran people have a credible fear of death. In 2016 more than 160 Biafran youths were shot down in cold blood at Ngwa High School Aba. The Army declared Operation Python Dance 1 & 2 and went to the home of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra) and killed over 50 Biafran youths there and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu escaped assassination by the whiskers. The Army went to Uzouwani in Enugu state and massacred over 100 Biafran youths, repeating the same at Eheamufu, Izombe and Aguleri. Just before the recently concluded general elections in Nigeria, about 40 people were shot in cold blood in Aba – Abia State when some unarmed youths marched to the street to demand the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who the Nigerian government is holding captive even when the courts discharged him of all charges. The soldiers also wounded hundreds of other innocent people.
“On January 1, 2023, the military-led a siege on the Ihube – Okigwe in Imo State and burnt the town down. After the presidential election of February 2023, the military and political thugs burnt down the businesses of the Biafran people for no justifiable reasons in Lagos, Maiduguri, Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, etc.
“The designation of Nigeria as having Temporary Protected Status is a welcome development and we equally request the U.S. government to use its influence and leverage to push for a renegotiation of Nigeria and a peaceful referendum for the Indigenous People of Biafra to exit Nigeria, putting an end to decades-old hostilities before it degenerates into another full-scale civil war, which could have been averted. Thank you all”.
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