The National Security Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, on Monday met with Governors from the five South East States in Abuja.
Sources confirmed that the meeting discussed the worsening security challenges in Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Imo, and Ebonyi States.
At the meeting was Abia State Governor, Alex Otti and his Imo State counterpart, Hope Uzodinma. The Governors of Anambra (Chukwuma Soludo), Enugu (Peter Mbah) and Ebonyi (Francis Nwifuru) were absent. They sent representatives.
Chief of Defense Staff, General Christopher Musa also attended the security meeting.
The Abia State Governor, who spoke on the sideline of a security meeting, said residents of his State cannot afford to stay at home for two weeks in compliance with the directive issued by the Simon Ekpa’s faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Otti said only a handful of people were benefitting from the sit-at-home order, using the instrument of fear to intimidate the people and as such, the government cannot sit and watch them succeed.
According to him: “Governments all over the world cannot be threatened and we need to sound that note of warning.
“You cannot afford to sit at home when you have work to do. A lot of people live on a daily basis; the taxi drivers, the keke drivers, the woman that is selling pepper in the market, if she sits at home for two weeks, she will die of hunger. So, it (the order) is null and void.”
Last Wednesday, the Senate condemned the Monday sit-at-home in the South East geopolitical zone and asked the Federal Government to collaborate with the Finnish Government and extradite a pro-Biafran agitator, Simon Ekpa, for prosecution.
The upper chamber resolved to invite the Minister of Foreign Affairs (when appointed) and relevant stakeholders to conduct a thorough investigation and bring other sponsors of the act to book.
The Senate also rejected a recommendation for IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu’s release, saying it would amount to sub judice as his release was still in court.
The illegal sit-at-home order is said to be enforced by a faction of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in five South-East states.
The unconstitutional order was declared in 2021 to press home demands for the release of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, who was detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) and prosecuted for terrorism-related charges.
