By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has reacted to threats by Anambra State governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, to sanction civil servants in the state who fail to come to work as a result of the Monday sit-at-home order in the South-East.

Soludo had warned that civil servants who fail to report to work on Mondays will lose salaries.

However, in a statement on Sunday by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, IPOB dismissed the Anambra governor’s threat, insisting that the sit-at-home is a legal, peaceful civil protest embarked on by the people to show solidarity with Nnamdi Kanu.

Parts of the statement titled, “Soludo must respect people’s will: Monday sit-at-home is a legal, peaceful civil protest, not a crime”, reads: “The attention of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and all lovers of justice has been drawn to the reported threat by Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo to penalise and intimidate citizens who choose to remain indoors on Mondays as a symbolic act of solidarity with our leader, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who is being unlawfully detained by enemies of the Igbo race and the Biafra restoration project which he leads.

“Let it be stated clearly and without ambiguity: Anambra is not a military barracks. The people are not tenants in their own land. No Governor has the lawful power to compel free citizens to open their businesses or move about against their will, especially when their action is a peaceful, non-violent expression of conscience.”

Stressing that Monday sit-at-home is civil disobedience, and not terrorism, IPOB noted that Soludo, as a man who parades the title “Professor”, should be the first to recognise the elementary democratic principle called civil disobedience, “a peaceful refusal to cooperate with policies and conditions viewed as unjust”.

The statement added: “If businessmen, traders, students, professionals, elders and youths voluntarily choose to sit at home on Mondays as a silent protest against the continued detention and persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, that is their right. It is not a crime. It is not rebellion. It is not an offence.”

IPOB warned that a government that turns peaceful protest into punishable misconduct is simply declaring war on the people’s dignity.

The pro-Biafra group further urged Soludo to “stop fighting his own people to impress Abuja,” adding:

“Governor Soludo must not pretend he does not understand what is happening. Nobody is deceived. The frustration in Igboland is deep. The anger is justified. The pain is historic. And the Monday sit-at-home is a token expression of that collective burden.

“But instead of confronting the injustice that fuels agitation, the Governor has chosen the weak and disgraceful route of harassing his own people—to be seen as “loyal” by Abuja power brokers who have shown nothing but contempt for Igbo lives and Igbo dignity.

“When criminal violence is tolerated elsewhere, and killers are pampered, negotiated with, and incentivised under “rehabilitation,” it is a tragedy that an Igbo governor would devote his energy to threatening traders, punishing youths, and blackmailing citizens for choosing to stay in their homes peacefully.”

IPOB, in the same vein, warned Soludo that any task force set up against the people would be viewed as a provocation.

“We issue this warning in the strongest possible terms: If Governor Soludo, in his desperation for applause, proceeds to establish any task force, enforcement squad, or vigilante-style unit to coerce citizens into opening shops through threats, extortion, harassment, arrests, or intimidation, then he has crossed a red line. That will not be governance.

That will be provocation. That will be oppression.

“And the people will treat it for what it is: an open declaration of hostility against the spirit of Biafra and the collective resolve of Ndi Igbo.”

Insisting that it does not force the people to sit at home, IPOB said: “Let us be clear for the record: We do not force people to sit at home. But no government will force them to go out.

The sit-at-home is voluntary. It is a choice. It is a personal and collective statement of solidarity. People who stay home on Mondays do so because they believe sacrifice is part of the struggle for justice and freedom.”

Urging Soludo to deliver governance, not threats, IPOB said the governor “should focus on the mandate he begged for: security, infrastructure, jobs, and development”.

“If he truly believes in the “Dubai” rhetoric he sold to Anambra people, then he should deliver it through competence, not coercion. A governor who fights traders for protesting injustice is not building Dubai.

“He is building resentment. He is planting division. He is igniting a fire he cannot control,” the separatist group said.

It insisted that the solution to the sit-at-home is freedom for Nnamdi Kanu.

“The Governor knows the truth he is avoiding: The solution is not threats. The solution is justice. The solution is the release of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who is the symbol of our freedom and hope.

“Until that injustice is addressed, every Monday will remain a day of silent protest. Not by decree. Not by violence. But by conscience. Governor Soludo is advised in his own interest to stop threatening Ndi Anambra and Ndi Igbo.

“The people are not his enemies. His duty is to protect them, not punish them. To lead them, not provoke them. To serve them, not subjugate them. Let him not start what he cannot finish. Because history has never been kind to leaders who attack their own people to impress external masters,” the statement further warned.

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