THE Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have urged residents of the South-East to ignore a one-week sit-at-home order issued by Finland based pro-Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa, describing it as irresponsible.
In a statement on Monday, July 3, IPOB spokesperson Emma Powerful also dissociated the organisation from the order and described it as an agenda to ridicule the Biafran struggle.
“Biafrans should ignore the rabble-rousers. There is no sit-at-home scheduled. The purported one-week sit-at-home jingle on social media is not from IPOB.
“We are not in the business of issuing irresponsible and non-existent sit-at-home orders. IPOB is a responsible movement and family. Our aims and objectives are to give peace and freedom to our people, not to inflict more pain on the pains Nigeria has already inflicted on us,” he said.
The group alleged that agents of the Nigerian government are behind the sit-at-home order.
“How can we be keeping our people indoors for one week at these harsh economic times in Nigeria? Our people should start reasoning. Some Federal Government agents are trying to make the South-East unattractive for our people to return to. They have failed,” the IPOB spokesman added.
Ekpa, who declared that the sit-at-home on Friday, June 30, said it would run from July 3 to July 10.
He stated that the exercise was necessary to secure the release of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu and to prepare for the Biafra referendum.
In the same vein, the Ohanaeze Youth Council also discouraged residents from adhering to the sit-at-home order.
“We have always made it clear that Simon Ekpa is not fighting for Biafra; he is only using the name of Biafra to enrich himself. He is also not interested in having Mazi Nnamdi Kanu released because he knows any day Kanu is released, his business will end,” a leader of the Ohanaeze Youth Council, Okwu Nnabuike was quoted as saying.
He described the order as deceitful, noting that Ekpa is not being restrained from going about his daily business in Finland where he resides.
The weekly Monday sit-at-home was ordered by IPOB as a means of demanding the release of it’s leader, Kanu, after he was abducted and repatriated to Nigeria from Kenya by Nigerian security agents.
The pro-Biafra group reversed the order after the sit-at-home exercise was hijacked by hoodlums, leading to killings and destruction of property.
However, the sit-at-home has continued to be enforced on Ekpa’s orders, despite IPOB’s insistence that the exercise had been cancelled.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.