•Police: Go about your businesses

By Nnamdi Ojiego, Chinonso Alozie & Ugochukwu Alaribe

Tension and 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”.

Arrest

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.

FG clarifies

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 Sunday Vanguard learnt that Kanu, who was based in the UK, was lured to Kenya with a promise of cash donations and was then picked up.

Kenyan connection

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.

No going back

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.

Nothing is too much

Cross-section of residents, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, insisted that they would do everything possible to protest the detention of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu, by the Nigerian government.

According to them, no sacrifice would be too much in fighting for the release of the detained IPOB leader.

READ ALSO: Stop threat of lockdown in South East Zone, VON DG counsels IPOB

A trader at the Orie Ugba market, Umuahia, Mrs Blessing Nwankwo, said Kanu had suffered too much for Ndigbo in his bid to actualize an independent state of Biafra, stressing that it won’t take anything from traders to forfeit a day to identify with him.

“We will shut our operations on Monday in line with the IPOB order,” a driver who plies Aba- Umuahia route said.

Avoidable occurrences

However, Sunday Vanguard gathered that most of the traders and motorists who will shut their operations tomorrow and subsequently every Monday would do so to avoid uncertainty.

Unlike the past sit-at-home orders, no member of the separatist group has been found at the markets and roads warning about non-compliance to the order.

Our findings revealed that most residents are afraid to defy the sit-at-home order.

Meanwhile, some stakeholders in Imo said the order would not achieve any positive result because it was not an agreed action by the Igbo and, therefore, would not be obeyed.

Difficult to obey

They cautioned IPOB not to copy what happened in other countries where agitations have been going on and impose it on the people, arguing that no Igbo would shut their business every Monday of the week in protest and advised the group’s leadership to choose a day only for the sit-at-home protest.

A chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Imo, Vin Amadi, said: “It will not work. I will rather advise them to calm down. They can choose a day and do it and not every week. It is going to be very difficult to obey. Going ahead with it will even create more suffering for the people. This is not the way to go about it.”

Different strategy

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.

Active consultations

“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.”

Ohanaeze speaks

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.

Police warn

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.

Vanguard News Nigeria