A Nigerian activist who was arrested and released on Sunday has daid he was told that his arrest was because he wore a shirt with the inscription: ‘We Are All Biafrans.’
The activist was arrested by the Nigerian State Security Service, SSS, at the Abuja airport after returning to the country from Abroad.
He was arrested at about 5:00 p.m. on Sunday and released about five hours later.
He arrived via a Lufthansa airline and was waiting for his luggage when SSS officials accosted him.
“I was arrested for wearing the T-shirt because the SSS said it is capable of causing disaffection in the country.
They said some people had issues and had contacted them whether I was a part of a group that was planning against the country,” he told PREMIUM TIMES after his release.
The inscription on Mr Onumah’s shirt, We Are All Biafrans, is the title of a book he wrote about Nigeria.
The book, a collection of essays by the journalist, focused on the need to restructure Nigeria in order to be able to build a united country.
Baifra is also the name the South-eastern part of Nigeria adopted during the Nigerian civil war, 1967-1970. There are still many individuals and groups in the South-east clamouring for an independent Biafra republic. One of them is an outlawed group, IPOB, led by a fugitive, Nnamdi Kanu.
Mr Onumah has no known links with any of the Biafran groups and has opposed the breakup of Nigeria, calling instead for a restructured country where power is devolved to its constituent parts.
