Razaq Bamidele
Three days to another Monday, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly has urged stoppage to the continuous obedience to the Sit-at-Home Order in the South-Eastern part of the country by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its Eastern Security Network (ESN), insisting the madness should be condemned.
A statement from the Assembly’s Director General, Strategic Planning and Implementations, Amb. Tony Chiemelu Obizoba, said the order has become a thing that must no longer be condoned; especially with the way the group appears to be having upper hand over constituted authorities without the governors ever being able to stop them.
While Nigerians, who blame the Igbo residents operating businesses in the region for complying with the sit-at-home order of the IPOB, may not be correct as it must also be spelt out clearly that there is little or hardly anything those residents can do in a situation where the group use force and violence to implement the sit-at-home.
The statement reminded that the governors that have the constitutional powers to enforce the law to their security and safety are doing nothing, believing that, to do otherwise can be suicidal for the ordinary citizens in the region.
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“We can give it to the Governor of Imo State, Sen. Hope Nzodinma, because he has tried a little as he has made bold statements against the IPOB’s order. However, bold statements of the governor could bite, only if they are followed with action.
“The governors, national and state lawmakers of the South East and other political elites in the region should bear it in mind that, for their incessant conspiracy of silence and inaction, they risk the Federal Government of Nigeria taking required action as a last resort and it will have overbearing effects.
“And knowing full well that the Presidency of the country will, constitutionally, not fold its arms and allow a section of the country to be taken over by powers that are strange to recognition of the law, nobody can do anything about whatever action is taken by Abuja because, owners of town cannot allow their town to scatter, says an adage.
“Some people claim they are fighting for the emancipation of Igbo Land due to what they claim to be lack of development. Under President Muhammadu Buhari, the odds of the past have started coming to even. We have seen elements of development. We have seen roads that were, in actual fact, neglected under politicians that claimed to be our own sons now being fixed.
“We have seen the Second Niger Bridge, upgraded Enugu International Airport and have seen completed modular and groundbreaking of full fledge refineries brought to the region just like we also have the South East state of Anambra now enlisted as one of oil producing states now accessing the 13 per cent derivation and other benefits that are expected to improve the lives of our people,” the statement submitted.
Against this background, the Assembly said, “it will be out of place that a group of supposed fighters for the ‘liberation’ of Igbo Land will be the ones leading the fronts for the destruction of the same land they claim to liberate,” asking rhetorically that, “Now, from whom are they liberating the land when, of a surety, they are physically witnessed destroyers that everybody can see?”
The concerned organization insisted that, “You cannot continue to blame the Hausa-Fulani for the problem of Igbo Land because, the resemblance of hope that we have seen so far, which was impossible for the 14 years of our fellow Southerners in power, has been made possible only by the same Hausa-Fulani man that you hate to see in power.”
The statement reads further thus:
“We should throw sentiments and self deceit to the bin and allow the common sense in us to lead our way for us to access better life. We once witnessed in recent past when this led Federal Government kick-started the construction of Second Niger Bridge and our own Igbo youths went and blocked the contractors demanding for N500 million before they could allow the development of their own region take place. Same done to contractors upgrading the Enugu Airport. And we have the same people now claimed that they are doing SIT-AT-HOME for the liberation of their land. Which land?
“Again, because of SIT-AT-HOME order of these group, many souls of Igbo people have been destroyed due to blind killer spray that has taken place in the name of implementation of this said order. Travelers coming from other regions of the country to the South East region have had their vehicles set on fire and also got killed. They are fellow Igbo people. What is their offence? Our own children was chased out from exam hall and their motorbikes were destroyed. What is the other characteristic of terrorism if not this?
“Funny enough, they fail to extend their SIT-AT-HOME order to Igbo doing businesses in other region in solidarity with their cause. They should have also enforced it on Igbo in Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto and other parts to show they really care.
“For how long will governors of South East continue to remain in this conspiracy of silence and allow this group reign to the detriment of the land and the people? What has happened now by their attitude is nothing more than two governments now running the affair of each state of the South East.”
Concluding, the Assembly warned that, “It must be stopped immediately because, if the Federal Government will come to do the governors’ work for them, they should know that they will not be the ones in power to witness it as the constitution empowers President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency to restore normalcy, common sense, security peace and order in the place.”
Gentility of Buhari’s lion, according to the statement, “our people should not take it for a coward and a stitch in time, the adage says, saves nine!”
