This is not the best of times for those declaring and enforcing frequent sit-at-home orders in the South East as the leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has declared war on them.

South East Governors rose from their meeting in Enugu, last Thursday, with a firm resolve to fight insecurity decisively in the region individually and collectively, in partnership with the Federal Government and other stakeholders.

In addition, the governors categorically stated that the perpetrators of the insecurity in the region and their sponsors “are criminals and should not be seen as legitimate agitators. Therefore, upon arrest, they should be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the land.”

All the five governors in the zone, including Sen. Hope Uzodinma (Imo); Prof. Chukwuma Soludo (Anambra); Dr. Alex Otti (Abia); Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi) and Dr. Peter Mbah (Enugu), attended the meeting. The mainstream IPOB led by Nnamdi Kanu had first declared every Monday sit-at-home with effect from September 9, 2021, to push for the release of its leader who has been in the detention of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June that year. Overtime, the self-determination group suspended the weekly sit-at-home call and urged people to go about their normal businesses on Mondays.

Yet, the Auto Pilot version of the group led by Finland-based Simon Ekpa continued to use the stay at home as tool for civil disobedience.

Worried by this development, IPOB has repeatedly dissociated itself from the activities of the Ekpa-led group.

Spokesman of the pro-Biafra group, Emma Powerful accused Ekpa and his cohorts of deceiving people into believing that “he is a member of this noble peaceful global movement of IPOB led by Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.” He stated that the violent enforcement of infamous sit-at-home, kidnapping-for-ransom and snatching of cars, humiliating market women and school children cannot be traced to Kanu or IPOB. To further prove his disapproval for the sit-at-home, Kanu recently released a handwritten message from detention, pronouncing any form of stay-at-home order again in the South-East as illegal.

The IPOB leader’s handwritten directive was a masterstroke as it clearly gave confidence to residents of the region and they trooped in their numbers for their normal businesses last Monday. In Enugu, where there had been partial observance of the Monday sit-at-home, businesses picked up after initial lure in the morning hours.

Reports from Abakaliki, Aba, Awka, Nnewi, Onitsha and Nsukka indicated that people were determined to put the dark era of Monday sit-at-home behind them.

Saturday Sun reliably gathered that the Enugu State Government working in collaboration with the security agencies recently commenced clearing of forests identified as criminal hideouts, including the notorious one at Akpawfu in Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state. In a related development, there has been some change of strategy by the security forces in the South-East, leading to alleged improvement in intelligence-driven approach in tackling insecurity in the zone. It was gathered that the South-East governors’ upcoming meeting with President Bola Tinubu would be an opportunity to fine-tune final onslaught on criminals operating in the region. This is as regional security operations were being perfected behind the scene to return the region to its glorious years when it boasted of being the most secured part of the country with the least incidents of crime.

All these have resulted in tangible improvement of security in the South-East, particularly with the flop of the two-week sit-at-home call by Ekpa’s Autopilot group.

IPOB’s media and publicity scribe said the situation was easing, and with Kanu’s handwritten order, everything was under control. In its effort to further enlighten the people about its position on sit-at-home, IPOB last week flagged-off aggressive campaign across the length and breadth of South-East.

Powerful disclosed that Kanu authorised the distribution of the flyers and posters, explaining that it was IPOB’s last nail on the sit-at-home’s coffin. He stated: “This is to inform Biafrans about the flyers and posters being distributed all over Biafraland conveying our leader’s famous pronouncement cancelling Monday sit-at-home, and to inform the good people of Biafrans that sit-at-home is not only dead but will never again be invoked or deployed as a tool of civil disobedience in our quest for self determination. Any person or persons talking about a non-existent sit-at-home in Biafraland is an enemy of the people and shall be dealt with accordingly.

“We encourage Biafrans to help in the distribution of the flyers, posters to communities, hinterlands and cities in Biafraland signifying the requiem mass for the senseless Monday sit-at-home.” (Saturday Sun)

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