By Ben Duru (Owerri)
and Rafiu Ajakaye (Lagos)

To this end, the body says it has fully mobilised its members across the former Eastern Region to resist any attempts to carry out the headcount in the area saying it is ready to pay the supreme price for the actualisation of their dreamland.

MASSOB also insist that a census that would be organised without state of origin and religion in the form, among other defects, is only intended to maintain the status quo which believes that the North is more populated than the rest of the country.

Speaking with newsmen in Owerri, Imo State shortly after a meeting of adherents from Orlu, Okigwe and Owerri directorates of the group, its director of Information, Uchenna Madu, urged the Igbo to boycott the census because of the various deceits intended in the implementation.

“MASSOB has declared the forthcoming census as anti-Igbo, a farce, an exercise of corruption and another subtle way of enslaving Biafrans.”

Meanwhile, in view of the failed national conference organised by the Federal Government, MASSOB has pledged support for the proposed Sovereign National Conference (SNC) by the Pro-National Conference Organisations (PRONACO) which begins in October. It has also expressed its willingness to participate in the talks.

A statement by PRONACO’s Director of Media and Public Affairs, Wale Okuniyi quoted MASSOB leader, Ralph Uwazurike, as saying that during his visit to Chief Anthony Enahoro on Monday, he was assured that the conference would serve as an avenue for true deliberations on the way forward for the country.

Reiterating MASSOB’s support for non-violent struggles, Uwazurike commended PRONACO for the transparency, inclusiveness and accessibility of the process of the SNC and pledged MASSOB’s commitment to the success of the peoples conference. However, speaking on the census, Madu insisted that ethnicity and religion are critical demographic attributes that can make any census figure become more credible and acceptable worldwide, He added that it is important to keep the census process transparent to allow the international community see the sincerity and accuracy of the exercise.

He, however, lamented that the Federal Government does not want any Nigerian to be identified by his ethnic origin or religious affiliation adding that by that singular action, it has shot itself on the foot. “Progressive countries have the urge to do things right. When they conduct censuses, they ensure that the instrument contains a whole gamut of demographic variables that would enhance both meaningful projects and constructive national planning.

“There would be no Nigerian census in Biafra land. MASSOB members are fully prepared to stop it even with our lives for the actualisation of Biafra,” Madu said, adding that previous censuses had tended to give an undue advantage to the North.

Putting the population of the former eastern region to about 55 million people, he said any census without the necessary ingredients is intended to further distort the facts about the population of the people as well as manipulate the figures to continue to make them subservient to the rest of the country.