South-East: SIMON EKPA BATTLES GOVS FOR CONTROL

 

Akani Alaka

The battle for control of South-East Nigeria seems to be on between Finland-based deviant member of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, Simon Ekpa and elected and even, unelected leaders across the five states of the region as has been demonstrated in the ongoing order and counter order for the people of the region to sit-at-home for seven days.

Ekpa, who now described himself as the Prime Minister of Biafra had about two weeks ago indicated that the people of the region would stay at home for seven days in protest against the continued detention of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

The seven-day stay-at-home was like an extension of the every Monday stay–at–home which usually paralyses social and economic activities every first working day of the week.

People across the South-East region are compelled to stay or sit at home or risk the loss of their lives to rampaging gunmen enforcing the directive which was initiated by IPOB to protest the arrest and detention of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu about two years ago.

However, following criticisms and appeals from the leaders of the region, a faction of IPOB had ordered the stoppage of the order since last year.

But not so for Ekpa who has not only continued to insist on the Monday sit-at-home order but also intermittently declares longer days of sit-at-homes as he did last week.

Former and sitting governors of South-East states had at various times tried to convince their people not to obey the sit-at-home order without success.

Ekpa’s men are believed to be responsible for most of the attacks on police and military formations, as well as kidnappings in the South-East carried out under the guise of agitation for Biafra.

Mbah Takes On Ekpa For South-East

Newly sworn-in governors led by Peter Mbah of Enugu have also since they assumed office on May 29 vowed to stop the practice of forcing residents of the state to stay at home every Monday or any other time by the Ekpa-led faction of IPOB.

Indeed, Mbah had on assumption of office threatened to sack civil servants and close businesses and markets that refused to operate on Mondays in Enugu State. Speaking during his first security meeting on Thursday, June 1, Mbah had vowed that from Monday, June 5, there would be no observance of any sit-at-home in all nooks and crannies of Enugu State.

“Government will enforce this with all the powers at its disposal,” while urging market men and women, the corporate world, industries, schools, civil servants, and all strata of workers in Enugu State to ensure that they were in the offices or business premises on that day.

However, despite assurances by the governor, residents of Enugu metropolis deserted the streets in compliance with the sit-at-home order of Ekpa-led IPOB on 5 June.

Schools, banks, traders, transport companies and civil servants in Enugu have continued to observe the Monday sit-at-home like their counterparts in some other places in the South-East states despite different threats by the government.

No To 7-Day Sit-At-Home

Mbah and his colleagues were still battling with how to end the Monday sit-at-home order when Ekpa announced the declaration of a seven-day sit-at-home which began last Monday.

Ekpa, in his notice for the one-week sit-at-home in protest against what he called the continued detention of Kanu, declared Monday a ‘total lockdown’, Tuesday as a ‘no movement’ day, Wednesday as ‘sit-at-home’, Thursday as ‘opening of markets’, Friday as ‘don’t come outside’ day, Saturday as ‘ghost town day’ and Sunday as ‘stay indoors day’. However, the declaration was met with opposition from some leaders of the region.

For one, the senator representing Anambra South lamented that people of the South-East have been observing Ekpa’s sit-at-home order despite the huge misfortune and hardship that came with it.
“Enough is enough. We are losing our economic base, jobs and business opportunities. As the representative of the good people of Anambra South senatorial district, I deem it fit to say we will not continue to have the sit-at-home.

Henceforth, every business area in Nnewi shall be open for business,” said the Senator who lamented that Ekpa is hiding in Finland to cause mayhem in Nigeria.

“He is there in Finland contesting for councillor or whatever, he goes to work on Mondays, but he wants to ridicule us. He wants my people to continue to suffer deprivation because he has communication gadgets to run his propaganda,” he added.

The Enugu State Government had also warned the people not to obey the sit-at-home order, with warnings that schools, offices and businesses must be left open.

Gunmen Enforcers 

However, while security operatives have also taken over towns and villages in parts of the South-East, they have not been able to stop Ekpa’s men.

There have been intermittent attacks by gunmen on traders and others deemed to be flouting the sit-at-home order across the South-East as seen in some videos that have gone viral.

On Tuesday hoodlums shot sporadically at different locations while trying to enforce the seven-day sit-at-home order.

On Wednesday, there were also shootings in some parts of Enugu. On Friday gunmen enforcing the sit-at-home order also attacked Amaraku market located at Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo state.
The gunmen set a tricycle and vehicles ablaze while also destroying some goods and property of petty traders, who are mostly women. The gunmen also attacked the Obolo community in the same Local Government Area while warning the traders and transporters against further flouting of the stay-at-home order.
“The attackers warned traders to close shop and never to flout the order, warning them not to come out on Saturday. They went on to raze part of the market and burnt vehicles,” said an eyewitness.

In Ebonyi State, there were shootings in the Ishieke area of Abakaliki, the state capital which led to many of the residents staying at home out of fear. Gunmen enforcing the seven-day sit at- home stormed the market in the area and set one police van and two motorcycles ablaze.

However, the Police in Ebonyi on Friday announced the arrest of a 15-member gang involved in the shootings while trying to enforce the seven-day sit-at-home order. The arrested hoodlums included two herbalists, a male and female and 13 others.

Also, the police in Enugu said its operatives shot four gunmen who were involved in the enforcement of the stay-at-home order dead.

Dragging Ekpa To ICC

However, arrests and killings of the gunmen allied with Ekpa’s faction of IPOB have not been able to stop the havoc they are inflicting on communities across the South East.

There were reports that the Nigerian government has reached out to the Finnish government to rein in the activities of Ekpa.

The Enugu governor said on Saturday that his administration was considering the option of dragging Ekpa before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.

The governor, who claimed that the state was winning the war against sit-at-home enforcers, noted that they were using the leader of IPOB Kanu as a cover for their criminalities.

According to him, the sit-at-home enforcers were individuals out to destroy Enugu State and Igboland.
“We practice democracy. We can never allow murderers and terrorists to dictate to us. We must not allow those who do not have the mandate of the people to dictate to us how to live our lives; when to go out; when to close our businesses and when to sit at home.

“What we are facing now are media terrorists using social media to instigate fear and peddle fake news. We must not allow them to succeed. It is totally unacceptable. Nobody can make you inferior without your consent. These hoodlums are very few compared to our numbers. We cannot be taking instructions from hooligans. However, Ekpa seemed not ready to give up.

Only on Sunday, the self-styled Prime Minister of the Biafra Republic Government-in-Exile on his Twitter handle said he would announce the date for the fresh lockdown soon while celebrating the ‘success’ of the just-ended seven-day declaration.

According to him, he would announce the new lockdown in response to claims that the seven-day stay-at-home was not observed everywhere in the South-East.

“Our sit-at-home recorded 100% compliance. Because of this propaganda and lies we will lock down Biafra for another week and provide palliative to Biafrans. I will announce another week-long lockdown with palliative across Biafra land. The start date will be announced. It will be simultaneous with stopping oil exploitation from Biafra soil,” said Ekpa.

However, sources told The Nigerian Xpress that while there is an element of force in getting the people to obey the sit-at-home order, there are also those doing it willingly out of sympathy for Kanu.

They, therefore, said the release of Kanu from custody would be the quickest and surest way to knock Ekpa out of business. This was also the position of the Enugu governor who nevertheless seemed determined to fight Ekpa to a standstill on behalf of his colleagues.