- Says those enforcing “non-existent Monday sit-at-home are criminals, kidnappers and robbers” and should be treated as criminals.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Friday warned the Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, to “to stop linking IPOB with criminal activities in his state without proper investigation.”
IPOB, in the statement by its Spokesperson, Emma Powerful, said those carrying “out threats against people’s lives because of non-existent Monday sit-at-home are criminals, kidnappers and robbers. These people disturbing the peace of our people are not IPOB members. They should be treated as criminals.”
IPOB therefore tasked community leaders, market leaders, church leaders and other institutions of authority to arrest any hoodlum trying to enforce any sit-at-home on Mondays.
Distancing itself from the burning down of the Nnewi South Local Government Area seacretaria, the group called the perpetrators “unpatriotic elements be inflicting pain on our people and dragging our image to the mud.”
In the statement titled ‘Simon Ekpa And Autopilot Leave IPOB Alone,’ the secessionist group said Governor Soludo “should know that our enemies are committing atrocities using our name in their desperation to blackmail IPOB.”
IPOB faulted the call by Governor Soludo for members of its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) to come out from the “bushes and forests” where they are based, saying he should first of all “providing an alternative solution to checkmate the activities of Fulani terrorists herdsmen in our farms and forests.
“It is dangerous to leave our farms unguarded to avoid the Fulani jihadists masquerading as herdsmen manhandling our mothers, wives and sisters who go to farms. Anybody who knows Soludo should advise him to leave IPOB alone and stop making unguarded autrancses (utterances) against IPOB again without investigations.
“Importantly, those carrying out threats against people’s lives because of non-existent Monday sit-at-home are criminals, kidnappers and robbers. These people disturbing the peace of our people are not IPOB members. They should be treated as criminals. IPOB doesn’t shed blood. We are a peaceful movement.
“We wish to reiterate once again that IPOB has cancelled Monday sit- at-home order and anybody or group enforcing the relaxed order is neither from IPOB nor from IPOB volunteer group. Any governor or politician in the region who deemed it fit to stop non-existent Monday sit-at-home order in the region is free to do so.
“Anyone caught adding to the pain of our people in the name of enforcing Monday sit-at-home order will be treated like the enemy that he or she is. We, therefore, warn these agents of darkness using the name of IPOB to enforce a non-existent sit-at-home to desist because if we lay hold on them.
“Why should such unpatriotic elements be inflicting pain on our people and dragging our image to the mud? IPOB remains a non-violent movement and our peaceful approach for Biafra restoration has not changed. It will be recalled that IPOB leadership called for the Monday Sit-At-Home, and the same IPOB leadership has cancelled it. Nobody was given the mandate to enforce the same suspended sit-at-home using the name of IPOB.
“The only day sit-at-home will be observed in Biafraland is when our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is appearing in court, and we shall as usual make it public for all to know. We hereby direct community leaders, market leaders, church leaders, and other institutions of authority in Biafra land to arrest any hoodlum trying to enforce any sit-at-home on Mondays and hand them over to IPOB.
“Such criminal elements must be treated in a language they understand. Again it has become imparative to state that IPOB led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has nothing whatsoever to do with the recent attack on Nnewi South Headquarters/Secretariat.”