The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has fixed Sept 14, 2018, as a day of general strike, mourning, and resistance across Biafra land.

The group said the general strike was necessary, following the campaign of ethnic and religious persecution, genocide and humiliation of the people of Biafra in general by the Buhari led administration.

A statement by IPOB media and publicity secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, IPOB said that the humiliation has culminated in the abominable incarceration of innocent mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers in Owerri prisons.

The statement said: “We, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) do hereby declare 14 September 2018 a day of general strike, mourning and resistance across Biafraland.

“Inhabitants of South East/South South and all conscientious Biafrans living in other parts of Nigeria and the world are required to stay indoors away from work or daily business activities throughout the day of the 14th of September 2018.

“This is for us to register our anger and protest regarding the men and women killed at Afaraukwu in Umuahia during Operation Python Dance II on September 14 last year, those killed in Ngwa, Aba, Igweocha (Port Harcourt) and buried in unmarked mass graves as a result of unprovoked military invasion of Biafraland by the Nigerian Army.”

IPOB added that all those killed in the struggle for the restoration of Biafra independence since August 2015 when the army allegedly shot and killed one Mr. Okafor in Onitsha on a peaceful march from Nkpor to Onitsha main town.

The statement said the sacrifice of the dead will neither be forgotten neither will it be in vain saying that comes what may, this generation of IPOB must and will restore Biafra.

The statement further stated: “The sacrilegious and disgraceful humiliation of Igbo women, some of them great grand-mothers, ranks as one of the most abominable acts of desecration ever visited upon the land of Biafra in recorded history.

“It will mark the defining event that completed the shame and humiliation of the Igbo race. The cowardice and impotency of Igbo socio-political and cultural leadership in the face of such humiliation by a single Fulani police officer in Owerri is confirmation, if one is needed, that South East and South South regions are conquered territories and vassal colonies of the Sokoto caliphate.

“Nationwide general strike observed as a sit-at-home across Biafraland on the 14th of September 2018, is the only way we Biafrans can honour our fallen brethren and legitimately remind our northern oppressors and their collaborators in our midst that enough is enough.

“We do not want another Operation Python Dance or another mass murder of Biafra agitators and humiliation of our mothers in our land.

“We state categorically, there must emerge a free nation under God, whether our enemies like it or not.”

IPOB described the event at Afaraukwu; “the desecration of house of a traditional ruler, the slaughter of innocent men and women, the wholesale massacre along the Ngwa segment of Enugu-Igweocha (Port Harcourt) Expressway, countless number of mass graves across Biafraland” as “repulsive, inhumane, barbaric and worthy of total condemnation by all right-thinking people.”

The group expressed a desire to hear the United Nations and other world bodies give the issue of Biafra the same level of prominence it is giving Rhohingya.

The statement added: “All businesses, offices, markets, schools and road transportation will be shut down for 24 hours from midnight of the 13th of September.

“There will be no human or vehicular movement across Biafraland. People are expected to stay at home to pray for the soul of the brave and reflect upon the bondage our land is under.

“Any person or persons seen outside on the 14th of September 2018 will be classified as an enemy of the people because only collaborators in Ohanaeze and South East Governors Forum that instigated Operation Python Dance and encouraged the army to kill unarmed innocent IPOB agitators will dare challenge this directive.

“Honouring our heroes that died in Afaraukwu a year ago and other places in Biafraland, 14 September 2018 shall expose who the saboteurs undermining the freedom of Biafra truly are.”

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