The leader of a Nigerian separatist group advocating the peaceful secession of the country's oil-rich southeastern region, Ralph Uwazurike and six others were on Tuesday charged in a high court in Abuja with treasonable felony.

In the four-count charge, the men from the banned Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) were alleged to have conspired to "levy war, overawe and overthrow the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo."

The accused persons were alleged of belonging to a militant group called MASSOB ARMY that was said to be undergoing training. They were also said to have "formed and managed an unlawful society" with the objective of committing and inciting acts of violence and intimidation to subvert the government.

The charges were read to Uwazurike in English language and to the other six in their native Igbo language, when they claimed they did not understand English.

All the accused persons, who were not represented by any lawyer, pleaded not guilty to the charges and protested to the court over alleged dehumanizing treatment meted out to them by the secret police. They alleged that they were detained underground and in chains and they were being tortured by the security operatives.

Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako ordered that the accused be kept with the secret police with daily visitation by their counsel to ensure that they were well treated and then adjourned further hearing to December 6.

The MASSOB, founded six years ago, allegedly advocates peaceful and constitutional means for the struggle for the actualization of the sovereignty of Biafra, which took its name from the Bight of Biafra.

The Nigerian government, however, regards the activities of the MASSOB, which draws support mainly from the Igbo people, the third largest of Nigeria's more than 250 ethnic groups, as treason and has arrested hundreds of MASSOB members in the past two years.

An independent Biafra state established by the Igbo people following simmering ethnic tensions with rival Hausas plunged Nigeria into a 1967-1970 civil war, in which more than one million civilians died, mostly from famine.

On the eve of Tuesday's trial, MASSOB members carried out a violent demonstration in the southern city of Onitsha to protest against the arrest of Uwazurike last month. The residence of the late Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria's first president, was burnt down but the MASSOB in a statement denied the involvement.

Source: Xinhua