IPOB disown latest sit-at-home in South-east, reveal those behind it

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has said the group did not declare the proposed two-day sit-at-home in Nigeria’s south-east.

IPOB is a group agitating for the independent state of Biafra which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of south-south Nigeria.

The sit-at-home controversy

Two weeks ago, a video clip went viral on social media which showed an unidentified man asking residents of the south-east to observe sit-at-home on 21 and 22 October.

The man in the clip claimed the sit-at-home was declared because Biafran soldiers, within the period, would launch their armoured vehicles and foist Biafra flags in the South-east.

He also claimed that the sit-at-home order was to avoid innocent residents being hit by stray bullets in the event of a shootout between Biafra fighters and personnel of the Nigerian army.

The video clip elicited several reactions and caused tension in the South-east, with the police asking residents of the region to disregard the illegal order.

IPOB disowns illegal order

But the spokesperson of the IPOB, Emma Powerful, told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, that the separatist group did not declare the sit-at-home in the South-east.

“IPOB did not order the two-day sit-at-home, and we don’t want to talk about it, and we don’t want to create panic over order from inconsequential fellows,” Mr Powerful told this newspaper.

The spokesperson said the IPOB did not issue an official statement on the illegal order to avoid giving it undue popularity.

‘They’re infiltrators’

Mr Powerful said those calling for the two-day sit-at-home in South-east were those who infiltrated the IPOB led by Nnamdi Kanu.

The spokesperson urged residents of the south-east to disregard the illegal order and go about their normal businesses.

“Our people should ignore such obnoxious orders from criminals working for the government to tarnish the peaceful image of the IPOB movement,” he stated.

‘Tuesday not sit-at-home day,’ – Simon Ekpa

Meanwhile, a controversial Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa, has refuted speculation that Tuesday was part of the sit-at-home days.

Mr Ekpa, a self-acclaimed Prime Minister of Biafra Republic Government In-Exile, said the man who uploaded the viral video clip had been warned.

The Biafra agitator, in a post on his X handle on Monday, claimed the man made the video clip under the pretext of being a member of the Biafra Government In-Exile.

“There is no sit-at-home tomorrow (Tuesday),” Mr Ekpa, a Nigerian-Finnish citizen, said on Monday, apparently in response to the viral clip.

He said in a separate video clip that sit-at-home only holds on Mondays in the region.

Background

IPOB, in August 2021, introduced a sit-at-home order every Monday across the South-east to pressure the Nigerian government to release its detained leader, Mr Kanu, who is being tried for terrorism at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The separatist group later suspended the order, in preference for it to be implemented only on days Mr Kanu appears in court.

But despite its suspension, residents of the five South-east states – Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia and Anambra — have been observing the sit-at-home order, mostly out of fear.

IPOB had repeatedly disowned the Monday sit-at-home across the region, saying those who still enforce the order were criminals attempting to blackmail the separatist group.

But Mr Ekpa has continued to declare the sit-at-home in the region, despite being suspended by the IPOB faction led by Mr Kanu.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Kanu, the IPOB leader in late July 2023, through Aloy Ejimakor, his special counsel, ordered Mr Ekpa to stop issuing sit-at-home orders in the region.

However, Mr Ekpa described the letter as “fake,” and maintained that the illegal action would go on until Mr Kanu spoke to him directly in Finland, a North European country, where he (Ekpa) resides.

Meanwhile, several Igbo leaders such as the Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State and his Anambra State counterpart, Charles Soludo, had made unsuccessful efforts to stop the illegal action.