Against the backdrop of online reports linking the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri, Archdiocese, Bishop Anthony Obinna with Pro-Biafra agitators, the prelate has cleared the air on the incident saying what he did was merely to counsel the agitators on how to go about their agitation.
Bishop Obinna who spoke in Owerri to Journalists on the incident disclosed that, what actually happened was that he ran into the protesters on the day they were marking the 49th anniversary of the declaration of Biafra by Late Igbo leader Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu around Nkpor, Anambra State while returning to Owerri from a burial.
According to him when they got to Nkpor on their way back they met a procession of protesters IPOB and MASSOB who took over the road and refused to grant them passage prompting him to alight from the vehicle as a spiritual leader to advise them on the best approach to struggle for the actualization of the Biafran state.
Bishop Obinna said, he counseled them against resorting to violence, killings and destruction in the quest for an independent state, as according to him, only the unwise would destroy his home stead in the guise of fighting for independence.
He said he rather counseled them to embrace dialogue and negotiation as a way of resolving what grievances they have inorder to stop the unnecessary loss of lives of young men and women of Igbo origin as is being witnessed since the agitation spiked recently.
The prelate who felt saddened by the unnecessary killings and violence further stated that, he made it crystal clear that the death of a Nigerian whether Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani or any other ethnic group for that matter, should not be condoned no matter under what guise.
