Agents of the federal government on Thursday night arrested suspected masterminds of Radio Biafra, a broadcasting platform calling for the secession of the south-east from Nigeria. The signals were also reportedly jammed after initial failed attempts, but the station is still broadcasting on the world wide web, making it practically impossible to block its broadcasts. On Friday, it announced that it had launched another station, promising to launch 50 others. According to checks by TheCable, another radio station called “Biafra 24 Radio” has hit the airwaves pushing the same message of “freedom of Biafraland”. The radio station said it is running with the motto of “bringing Biafra closer”. Radio Biafra in its Friday morning broadcast promised to launch 50 other radio stations to push for the “freedom of Biafra”. Both Radio Biafra and Biafra 24 radio were live online as at Friday morning, while residents of Port Harcourt, Rivers state, were said to be having difficulty accessing the station. Joseph Udofia, one of the residents who spoke to TheCable, said of all the stations broadcasting in Rivers, none is Radio Biafra. “The 97.6FM was the former frequency (and) they claim to have moved to 102.1FM, but I can authoritatively say that nothing is being broadcast on that frequency now,” he said. The location and local frequency of Biafra 24 Radio could not be ascertained. Earlier, the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) through the permanent secretary of the ministry of information, Yemi Folasade-Esan, said the commission had jammed signals of the station. The station came out almost immediately to debunk the claim. Radio Biafra, which refers to Nigeria as a zoo, said the government is being unfair to them, claiming that Buhari promoted “Radio Chanji” when he was seeking power. “Radio Chanji was floated by Buhari and the APC, unregistered, to oust (President Goodluck) Jonathan. Yet Radio Biafra is registered and they want to stop us. Why do you need the United Kingdom, the United States, Israel to stop Radio Biafra?” the on air personality queried. He accused the government of trying to sabotage its operations by telling Tune-in Radio, an online platform, to shut down Radio Biafra. “The government told tune in to shut it down, what they do not understand is that tune in is just one of several listening ports. Tune in after much pressure have now restored Radio Biafra back to their platform,” he said.
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