The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has restated its threat to impose a month-long sit-at-home order all over the southeastern region.
To prevent this shutdown of the economy in the region, IPOB says its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, must be bought to court on October 21, the next adjourned date for his trial in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Until now, IPOB has been enforcing a weekly sit-at-home order every Monday during which all economic activities are suspended. Violators have often been punished severely, including some being beaten, shot or burnt to death in the process.
In a new statement on the panned month-long sit-at-home order, the Media and Public Secretary, Emma Powerful for IPOB enjoined all groups fighting for self-determination in Nigeria to come together and rise like one people to defend their ancestral land against their common enemy.
Here is the statement: “Following our earlier declaration of one-month lockdown of Biafraland should the Nigeria Government fail to bring our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to the court on October 21, we, the global family of the Indigenous of Biafra, request our brothers and sisters in the Oduduwa Republic and Middle Belt, including Igbo and Biafra businessmen and women, traders who are doing business outside Biafra land to shut down their business to demonstrate our resolve for the emergence of our new nation, Biafra, and support for our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and others who are facing a similar fate with us to join us in sympathy protest.
“All lovers of Biafra, including Christian communities in the North and other parts of Nigeria, who receive unnecessary humiliation, intimidation, and killings from terrorists, bandits, and murderous herdsmen should understand that time has come for all victims of impunity and atrocities to unite together for resistance.
“We need to put our differences behind us and rise as one people to defend our ancestral land against our common enemy and show… that Nigeria belongs to all of us all and any Biafra man residents in Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Gigawa, and other parts of North and western parts of Nigeria must shut down their shops in support of this fight for freedom and release of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“We cannot afford to abandon him at this point after sacrificing so much for us all. We must not fail to understand that the Federal Government dreads Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Ighoho, two heroes for freedom, and that is why it wants to keep them out of circulation. But we must resist the evil plot.”
The latest threat coincided with the blitz of attacks in Nnewi, Anambra State on Sunday by the group euphemistically known as Unknown Gunmen. They set ablaze the offices of the Department of State Security and the Federal Road Safety Corps. They also torched the country home of Joe Igbokwe, the Anambra-born chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Lagos State.
Anambra, which is scheduled to hold a general election on November 6, has witnessed a spate of killings by the Unknown Gunmen, who say they are opposed to the election.
