By Vincent Ujumadu

Following the rearrest and detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, in June, 2021, by the Federal Government of Nigeria, a self -styled IPOB factional leader, Mr. Simon Ekpa emerged, and since then, has been wreaking havoc in the South East geopolitical zone with his frequent anti people orders.

Despite the fact that the mainstream IPOB had since declared Ekpa, an Ebonyi State indigene who is based in Finland and his group as fake, he has continued to operate a network that appears to be too strong for Kanu’s IPOB to destroy. Ekpa’s men are believed to be responsible for most of the attacks on police and military formations, as well as kidnapping and ritual killings in the region.

Last week, Simon Ekpa issued a notice for one week sit at home in protest against what he called the continued detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

In the notice, Ekpa declared Monday a ‘total lockdown’, Tuesday as ‘no movement’ day, Wednesday for ‘sit at home’, Thursday for ‘opening of markets’, Friday as ‘don’t come outside’ day, Saturday as ‘ghost town day’ and Sunday as ‘stay indoors day’.

In Anambra State, Ekpa and his group have made Ihiala, a neighbouring local government with Orsu and Oru local government areas of Imo State, a killer zone. A fortnight ago, a middle-aged man into a logging business, Mr. Emeka Udemezue, lost his life after hoodlums suspected to be Ekpa’s men forced him to fell a tree and use it to block a road at Uli in Ihiala local government area.

Ebube Agu men killed him for that. Also last month, Ekpa’s men attacked members of the Anambra Vigilante Group, AVG, at Ogbenabo Okija in the same Ihiala local government area in their. The attackers, however, lost two of their men during gun battle.

The offence of the vigilante operatives was that they have managed to maintain peace in their community, to the disappointment of the fake Biafra agitators. These agitators are also the people that enforce sit at home at Onitsha, Nnewi and Ekwulobia every Monday.

But the people of Anambra State are beginning to say that they have had enough of Ekpa and his group. For instance, the city of Awka and other towns did not obey his latest order, at least for the first four days, as there was movement and people were going about their businesses.

Apart from Monday which had become a new normal for sit at home in the entire South East, the people of Anambra State have been going about their businesses without molestation.

In the major cities of Onitsha, Awka, Nnewi and Ekwulobia, all the markets, commercial banks and schools were open for business in all the days. At the Jerome Udoji state secretariat, where the impact of the sit at home is often felt, the workers were surprisingly at their duty posts, an indication that the people had got fed up with Ekpa’s orders, which had become frequent in recent time.

A businessman at the Onitsha main market, Mr. Francis Nwokafor said the people have become tired of the orders, describing as wicked, the decision by someone who is not even in Nigeria to order them to abandon their businesses for one week.

Nwokafor said: “I am happy that our people are begging to understand that Simon Ekpa does not mean well for Igbo people. You can imagine what we have lost in terms of revenue since the sit at home began.

“The man who is dishing out the orders is not living at home and therefore does not know how our people feel. He does not even have any business in this country.” Nwokafor urged the governors of the South East to put in place a security structure that would protect the people they govern, wondering why one person should be allowed to destroy the economy of a whole region in the name of agitation.

Another person who has vowed to ensure that Ekpa and his group will no longer stamp their foot in the state is the senator representing Anambra South, Chief Ifeanyi Ubah. Ubah had, indeed, thrown a challenge to Ekpa, warning him and his followers to stay away from his senatorial zone as he has directed that the sit at home should cease with immediate effect.

At a meeting with his constituents in Nnewi, Ubah lamented that Ekpa has been enforcing his sit-at-home order on the Igbo for many years despite the huge misfortune and hardship that came with it.

Ubah said: “ Enough is enough. We are losing our economic base, jobs and business opportunities.

As the representative of the good people of Anambra South senatorial district, I deem it fit to say we will not continue to have the sit-at-home “ Henceforth, every business area in Nnewi shall be open for business. We have our men, we have our system. I know saboteurs will try to sabotage our efforts, but we have resolved to fight any aggressor that will come into this town.

“His state, Ebonyi, is an All Progressives Congress (APC) state and he has never for one day mentioned it. Ebonyi doesn’t observe sit-at-home.

“They say charity begins at home. He must observe the sit-at-home in Ebonyi State before starting to mention Anambra State or Nnewi. He has seen Anambra or Nnewi as a fertile place for his dubious enterprise. I’m telling you Simon Ekpa, be careful.”

“He is there in Finland contesting for councilo or whatever, he goes to work on Mondays but he wants to ridicule us.

“He wants my people to continue to suffer deprivation because he has communication gadgets to run his propaganda

While Ubah is daring Ekpa in Anambra State, the man and his members appear to be gaining ground in Ebonyi state and causing fear in Enugu.

On Wednesday, there were shootings in some parts of the Coal City of Enugu although it was not clear who was responsible. Governor Peter Mba had asked Enugu people not to observe the sit-at-home that had badly affected the economy of the southeast, saying that he was determined to fight poverty in the state. More military men, some in civilian attires, are said to be roaming Enugu communities.

In Ebonyi State, there were shootings at the Ishieke area of Abakaliki, the state capital, which put fears into the residents, most of whom had decided to stay at home and observe situation before making any move.

Also, gunmen enforcing the seven day sitat- home stormed the market in the area and set one police van and two motorcycles ablaze.

As they carried out the havoc, they were shouting that they will continue to terrorize the people until the sit-at-home period elapsed.

They operated in an open roof vehicle and two motorcycles, wielding various high calibre guns, which resulted in people scampering for safety. They warned traders to go home immediately for their own good. When the news of the incident filtered into town, shops and other business houses in parts of the state shut down. The state police command had to deploy men to the affected areas to maintain peace and assured the people that they were on the trail of the hoodlums and would soon be arrested.

The case of Ebonyi State came as a surprise because this is one state in the South East that did not observe the sit at home. The
thinking is that the Ekpa group wants to test the will power of the new governor, Hon Francis Nwifuru.

As the Ekpa group was terrorizing parts of the South East, the leadership of IPOB has denied ordering sit at home anywhere. Its director of media and publicity, Emma Powerful said its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu never directed sit at home in any part of the South East and urged people to go about their businesses.