VAM News Update

IKENNA OBIANERI examines the battle to stop the sit-at-home siege imposed by the Indigenous People of Biafra in the South-East and how it has affected the region’s economy in the past two years

Since the Indigenous People of Biafra introduced the weekly sit-at-home exercise in August 2021, the South-East states of Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Abia, and Ebonyi have been under siege in the hands of gunmen parading themselves as enforcers of the illegal directive.

The development has fuelled insecurity in the region. Although the IPOB group says it suspended the exercise, the Finland-based Simon Ekpa-led faction of the body has continued to declare the sit-at-home exercise at regular intervals across the entire South-East geopolitical region.

As it stands, the sit-at-home exercise has literally grounded human, economic, and commercial activities in the region.

It is about two years since IPOB introduced the Monday sit-at-home in the South-East region to protest the continued detention of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

While other regions of the country observe its normal commercial and economic activities every week unhindered, the same cannot be said of the South-East.

The sit-at-home has led to the closure of banks, markets, schools, and offices on a weekly basis. Several roads are often deserted as residents observe the exercise in fear.

Concerned citizens and critical stakeholders have on several occasions lamented the devastating blow the exercise is having on the region.

Revenues running into trillions of naira have reportedly been lost since the exercise began. The trade and commerce sector seems to be the worst hit, and for a region, which largely depends on trade and commerce for its revenue, the situation has left little to be desired.

The South-East is home to many micro, small and medium-scale enterprises as well as indigenous manufacturing and agro-allied industries.

Besides the effects on economic and commercial activities as well as infrastructure, human lives have been lost to exercise. Both the state governments and residents of the region are feeling the pinch.

Across the states of Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi, the situation is the same.

According to the Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, an estimated N19.6bn has been lost in Anambra as a result of the Monday sit-at-home.

Efforts by Soludo and the Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, to put an end to the menace have yet to yield any result.

Soludo, had convened several stakeholders meeting with a view to stopping the Monday sit-at-home. The governor also issued directives to workers to start coming to work on Mondays, declaring that the sit-at-home had been canceled.

The efforts have however met a brick wall, as the people continue to observe the exercise.

The governor, during the meetings, had said, “Every day there is a sit-at-home, the poor masses lose an estimated N19.6bn in Anambra alone. Due to the protracted breakdown of law and order, businesses are relocating outside Igboland, with growing unemployment, and traders who used to come to shop in Onitsha, Nnewi, Aba etc, are going elsewhere. Who is losing?

“By forcing our children — the future of Igboland — to stay at home instead of being in school, while even the critically sick people (including pregnant women) cannot go to the hospital, we harm our future.

“Following the unanimous agreement of our leaders across the board and the entire body of Christ, I am pleased to inform our people that the ‘Monday sit-at-home has come to an end in Anambra State.”

Mbah, on his part, shortly after assuming office in May, directed Enugu State civil servants, market leaders, traders and the like to start opening on Mondays, calling for collaborative efforts to end in the South-East geopolitical zone.

He said Enugu State would not become the premier destination for investments, residence and tourism if the people continued to dissipate energy on faceless marauders while urging the people of the state not to be deceived by those using the name of IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, as a cover for their criminalities.

The governor stressed that Kanu had since expressed his displeasure at the enforcement of the “sit-at-home’’ order and its consequent havoc on Igboland.

“They have lost their capacity to inflict havoc on lives and property as was previously the case due to reenergised security measures. We are winning the war against ‘sit-a-at-home’ enforcers and would never take orders from murderers and enemies of Igboland,” he added.

But despite all these efforts to nip the menace in the bud, the “enforcers” of the sit-at-home have continued to threaten residents.

Apart from the usual Monday sit-at-home, most of the times, the people are ordered to sit at home on other day(s) of the week. For instance, panic was created in the South-East last week when gunmen, suspected to be enforcing a one-week sit-at-home order declared by the Simon Ekpa-led faction of the IPOB threw residents of the region into panic and confusion.

The gunmen forced the residents to comply with the one-week sit-at-home order from July 3 to 10.

Ekpa, who is based in Finland, had last week ordered a week-long sit-at-home exercise, threatening in a video, to deal with anyone who dared to come out in any of the states. He claimed that the exercise was to press for the release of Kanu from detention.

However, last week, the large part of the South-East practically became a ghost town as gunmen suspected to be loyal to Ekpa and enforcing the sit-at-home, on Tuesday allegedly carried out attacks on market places in Ebonyi and Enugu states. The enforcers, on Friday night, also set ablaze part of Orie Amaraku market, in the Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State, as well as buses and tricycles.

It was gathered from eyewitnesses that the armed men, who drove in three Sienna vehicles and motorcycles came with explosive devices to set the area on fire as they were shouting “obey sit-at-home order of IPOB.”

They warned the residents not to open for the weekly market of Orie Amaraku, on Saturday.

Several persons were said to have also being killed during the Imo attack, including a tricycle rider and his passenger.

In Anambra, on Friday, panic was also created when shootings by gunmen suspected to be enforcing the one week sit-at-home order made residents and traders at the commercial cities of Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka to run helter skelter for safety.

Some traders at the Main Market in Onitsha as well as spare parts markets in Nnewi and Nkpor, who had opened for the day’s business, hurriedly closed their shops for fear of being attacked.

Children were not left out as school authorities allowed parents who had stormed various schools to hurriedly pick their children home pending further developments.

A trader at the Onitsha Main Market who identified himself as Nonso, had said they were warned through a circular the previous day not to open for business on Friday and were advised to stay home, adding, “But nobody knows the reason and the direction the circular was coming from.”

Although, the police spokesperson in Anambra State, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, said the development was the handiwork of mischief-makers.

Similarly, the state Commissioner for Homeland Matters, Chikaodi Anara, said the reports of incidences across the state were mere rumours to cause panic in the state.

The police in Ebonyi and Enugu states appear to have dislodged the hoodlums masterminded attacks in the states. For instance, the police in Ebonyi on Friday announced the arrest of 15 persons suspected to be involved in the shooting by suspected IPOB members on Tuesday at the new market and Ishieke areas of the state.

Similarly, in Enugu State, the police command in a statement on Friday by its spokesperson, Daniel Ndukwe, said it had dislodged and inflicted fatal gunshot wounds on hoodlums trying to enforce the sit-at-home order.

But despite all the efforts by the security operatives, the hoodlums enforcing the sit-at-home appear to be waxing stronger, forcing the people to continue to observe the exercise.

In the South-East, the sit-at-home appears to be a “sacred” topic that residents, especially notable personalities rarely speak against in the public.

However, a market leader in Onitsha market, who craved anonymity for fear of being attacked, while narrating his ordeal said, “We are now leaving like refugees in the South-East and always in fear as a result of this senseless sit-at-home. How can somebody issued an order from Finland and people are executing it here?

“We are losing a lot of investors and many businesses are relocating to other regions. We have also lost clients who come from other regions on Mondays for one transaction or the other. These guys should know that they are only setting the South-East backwards with this behaviour and the earlier they realised it, the faster the region would start coming out of the mess they have plunged it into.”

Another resident, a trader, who identified herself as Tina Okeke, blamed the South-East governors and security operatives for their failure to match their words with action in nipping the menace in the bud by providing the needed security.

“The sit-at-home is taken the South-East backwards and it’s a pity that the governors are just playing to the gallery while these groups of people continue to unleash mayhem on the whole region. It is just a pity. People have abandoned their ancestral homes and taken refuge in foreign lands. We just hope they realise this before its too late.

“While we commend some of the governors of the region who have called for the abolition, it is also important they note that asking the people to come out without adequate security in place cannot work. Traders are afraid of being attacked or their shops burnt. The Federal Government should do everything possible to release Nnamdi Kanu because this is the genesis of the whole thing. Definitely, this is beyond the governors, the Federal Government needs to urgently wade in.”

Also lending his voice to the development, the National Vice President-General of the Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to release Kanu.

He said Kanu’s release would settle the problem of sit-at-home and the resultant insecurity across the South-East geopolitical zone.

He opined that the Federal Government may be enjoying the insecurity in Igbo land, hence the reason it has refused to release the pro-Biafran leader.

He said, “It is possible that the Federal Government is enjoying the security challenges the indigenes and non-indigenes residing in the South East Zone are suffering. They should release the IPOB leader as ordered by the Court, then every Nigerian will know whether the current unrest in the region will continue or not.

“It is a serious security challenge, Ohanaeze as a socio-cultural group is helpless and cannot do anything. The governors of the South-East, who are the chief security officers of the region should also be blamed for not taking up the responsibility. The absence of the South-East governors’ forum has dealt a lot of blows to the residents of the region. It is hightime the South-East governors sat up and discuss the issue of sit-at-home and how they can tackle it. No one state can do it alone, it must be a collective responsibility.”

He added, “The sit-at-home is as a result of systemic failure from both national and states. The governors should sit up, they took oath to protect the citizens and the people are looking forward to them. It is their responsibility. If they can negotiate with the agitators, let them do that, if it is to discuss with them, whatever way, what the people need is free movement and security of their lives and property which is the primary duty of the governors.

“The South-East governors allowed the sit-at-home to degenerate to this level by refusing to beef up security at market places and around public facilities to enable the people to come out on those days.”

Also speaking, the leader, South-East Youth Coalition, Mr Sebastian Uche, said, “Show of force cannot stop the sit-at-home, dialogue and Kanu’s release will solve this issue. Even the people seem to have become used to it at the moment. So, the more they apply force, the fiercer it becomes. It requires collaboration and dialogue to tackle it.

“The Federal Government should also start making deliberate measures to tackle this. It should not be left in the hands of the state governors alone. The problem is bigger than the state governors.

The Federal Government cannot continue to fold it’s arms and watch as things go wrong. The South-East is part of Nigeria and it’s challenge should be a concern to the Federal Government.

The Media and Publicity Secretary of the IPOB group, Emma Powerful, insisted that the exercise, which the group introduced in August 2021, had been suspended.

However, the Anambra State police spokesman, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, when contacted, said the police were doing enough to provide security around public spaces.

“We have told the people to ignore the non-existent sit-at-home but they have continued to stay at home and we cannot force anybody to come out of their houses. It is their choice,” he added.

(PUNCH)