The Indigenous People of Biafra has denied suspending its Sit-at-home scheduled for Monday, August 9, 2021.
IPOB dissociated itself from an alleged statement from the younger brother to its leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, that the order had been suspended.
But a statement issued late on Sunday by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary Emma Powerful said that the alleged Kanu’s brother who issued the statement is not IPOB’s spokesman and therefore should be ignored.
“Kanu brother is not IPOB spokesperson and anybody who listens to that deceptive statement and obligated to such statement by coming out tomorrow will get it hot,” the spokesman said.
Kanunta Kanu, younger brother of Nnamdi, had earlier said that the group had suspended the action, citing the National Examination Council examination for junior secondary schools beginning tomorrow.
A new date for the take-off of the sit-at-home order would be announced later, the group had said in a statement on Sunday.
IPOB had announced a Sit-at-home order to be observed on every Monday’s of every week, starting from Monday, August 9, 2021, until the release of its leader Nnamdi Kanu, who has been detained by the Nigerian government since he was brought back to the country after his arrests allegedly in Kenya.
“IPOB has listened to pleas from well-meaning individuals and groups within and outside Biafra land that we consider the fate of our children who will be involved in the NECO Exam and based on that, we decided to shift grounds over the sit-at-home order.”
“IPOB having realized the academic deprivation the already marginalized Biafra students who entered for this year’s NECO would suffer, decided to suspend the sit-at-home order to a later date, to allow the students to take their examinations.
‘Allowing the sit-at-home to go ahead as earlier announced, in the face of the NECO Exam would amount to assisting enemies of Biafra to inflict more injuries on her children.
“As a group fighting for the liberation of her people from oppression from her enemies, we realized that it would amount to assisting the said enemies to inflict more harm on our children if we do not suspend the sit-at-home order to allow Biafra students to take their exams”.
The group made it clear that the sit-at-home order has not been cancelled, but only suspended for the sake of students from the region who are taking this year’s NECO examination. It asked its members to wait for further directives.
The announcement of the suspension came as some states in the region had vowed to resist the planned order. In Imo State, the Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro had asked citizens to go about their lawful duties on Monday.
“He advised Imolites to come out on Monday en masse and go about their lawful businesses, bearing in mind that Imo state economy is driven by individual contributions and it is from the various daily activities they put food on the table,” the State Police command said in a statement on Sunday.
“The Commissioner of Police then directed that any person(s) who come out on that day to enforce any illegal order that is not from a legitimate authority should be resisted in its entirety by the good people of Imo State and they will be supported by security agencies. As they already achieved peace being enjoyed by all and sundry remains sacrosanct.”
