The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Sunday asked separatists agitators from the South West Oduduwa republic and Middle Belt follow its lead and shut down their businesses for one month to demonstrate their support for the emergence of “our new nation Biafra” and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
IPOB also asked all Igbo businessmen and women outside the South East region to join in the envisaged one month shutdown of businesses.
In a statement by its Spokesperson, Emma Powerful, IPOB advised all “all oppressed people in Nigeria to be prepared for the one month sit-at-home if the federal government of Nigeria and the Department of State Services, DSS fail to produce Nnamdi Kanu in court on the next court adjourned date.”
Part of the statement reads: “Following our earlier declaration of one month lockdown of Biafra land should the Nigeria Government fail to bring our Leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to the court on October 21, we the global family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), request our brothers and sisters in Oduduwa republic and Middle Belt including Igbo and Biafra businessmen and women, traders who is doing business outside Biafra land to shut down his or her business for one to demonstrate ourselves resolve for for the emergence of our new nation Biafra and support for our leader Mazi Nnamdi KANU and others who are facing similar fate with us to join us in sympathy protest.
“All lovers of Biafra including Christian communities in the North and other parts of Nigeria, who receive unnecessary humiliation, intimidation and killings from Fulani terrorists, bandits and murderous herdsmen should understand that time has come for all victims of Fulani impunity and atrocities to unite together for resistance. We need to put our differences behind us and rise as one people to defend our ancestral land against our common enemy and show Fulani and their cohorts that Nigeria belongs to all of us all and any Biafra man residents in Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Gigawa, and other parts of North and western parts of Nigeria must shut down their shops in support of this fight for freedom and release of our leader Mazi Nnamdi KANU.
“We advise all oppressed people in Nigeria to be prepared for the one month sit-at-home if the federal government of Nigeria and the Department of State Services, DSS fail to produce Nnamdi Kanu in court on the next court adjourned date. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a freedom fighter demanding for justice for the oppressed Indigenous people in Nigeria. He committed no crime to deserve his continued detention without trial.
“We cannot afford to abandon him at this point after sacrificing so much for us all. We must not fail to understand that the federal government dread Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Ighoho two heroes for freedom, and that is why it wants to keep them out of circulation but we must resist the evil plot. Every indigenous nationality in Nigeria has experienced one form of intimidation and humiliation from Fulani hegemony since 1960 till date. It is now time to end our captivity.
“The agitation by IPOB is not for Biafra alone but for all the oppressed indigenous tribes in Nigeria including Christian communities in the North. We are fighting for victims of Nigerian government sponsored mass murder and genocide and crimes against humanity which it commits with impunity through it security forces and its proxy militia the Fulani Herdsmen.”