Palpable fears have engulfed major cities in the South-East and other Igbo speaking cities such as Asaba, Delta State capital, following the commencement of weekly sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, tomorrow.
This is as the people of the region are expressing mixed feelings over the order.
While cross section of residents of Abia State said they would comply with the sit-at-home protest, some residents in Imo expressed doubts that the order would be obeyed.
IPOB had, on July 31, declared every Monday as a sit-at-home day in the South-East. The order was to press for the release of its embattled leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
The group’s spokesperson, Emma Powerful, in a statement, said, ”Nobody should attempt to flout this directive as doing so may come with huge consequences. Anybody flouting this order is taking a grave risk.
“This declaration takes effect from Monday, August 9, 2021. From that day, Biafra land will be on lockdown every Monday from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm until our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who was unlawfully abducted in Kenya and illegally detained by the Federal Government of Nigeria, is released.
“Consequently, all institutions, public and private, transport companies, schools, banks, markets, airports and seaports in Biafra land must shut down every Monday beginning from August 9”.
Kanu was arrested in June and extradited to Nigeria to face trial for alleged treason after he had jumped bail since 2017. This was after his country home, Afaraukwu in Umuahia, Abia State, was raided by Nigerian security forces.
The Nigerian authorities have accused the separatist leader of ‘orchestrating’ the killings of about 60 people, including security officials in the region.
IPOB, which had been proscribed by the Nigerian government, denied being responsible for the killings.
Meanwhile, the peculiarities of Kanu’s arrest have become a subject of controversy with some stakeholders faulting the method deployed by the federal Government. But the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, had explained that Kanu was “intercepted through the collaborative efforts of Nigerian intelligence and security services”.
Malami did not, however, state where the IPOB leader was arrested, but it was learnt that Kanu, who was based in the UK, was lured to Kenya with a promise of cash donations and was then picked up.
IPOB, through Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lawyer to the IPOB leader, accused the Kenyan government of illegally arresting Kanu and handing him over to the Nigerian government. But Wilfred Machage, Kenyan High Commissioner to Nigeria, denied the claim that the separatist leader was arrested in his country.
IPOB also stated that even with Kanu’s alleged abduction and subsequent detention in DSS custody, all its activities must go on unhindered because they had crossed the rubicon in their struggle and will never relent in the pursuit of Biafra freedom no matter the level of intimidation and harassment.
“IPOB will not relent in the pursuit of Biafra freedom. We have crossed the rubicon in our struggle for the restoration of Biafran sovereignty. There is no going back no matter the level of intimidation by our oppressors.
“Our Leader can never be coerced into abandoning the struggle for Biafra restoration irrespective of the present circumstance”, the group said in a statement.
Reacting, the Igbo National Council, INC, opined that the Cameroonian or Ambazonia method would not work in Nigeria as Igbo people were not known for ‘copy and paste’.
“The Igbo man is a unique person with unique ways and unique characteristics. We cannot because the Ambazonia, who have been observing ghost Mondays and conclude it will work for us. We are not known to be cowards, we confront issues realistically”, the group said.
“It is not going to work in this level of Nigeria. So we need to grow beyond that level and engage in consultations with our people. We need to talk to political hegemony and also look at the strength to control the political territory.”
The Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, on its part, called on the IPOB leadership to review its stance as the order would bring more hardship to Igboland.
In a related development, the police in Abia has accused the proscribed group of planning to use its militia arm, the Eastern Security Network, ESN, to force compliance of the sit-at-home order in the state.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mrs Janet Agbede, in a statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, said intelligence reports revealed that hoodlums had also planned to use the occasion to unleash mayhem on the people.
The CP, however, urged the people to go about their lawful businesses, stressing that security agents were on red alert to subdue hoodlums that might want to exploit the situation to cause havoc in Abia.