IPOB: Igbo People Relocating Out Of Igboland – Joe Igbokwe

By Adesina Soyooye

Indigenes of the South-east Zone of Nigeria, the Igbo, are relocating out of the region to other regions in Nigeria. This assertion was made by Chief Joe Igbokwe, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, and Special Assistant on Water and Drainage to Lagos State Governor.

Igbokwe, from Nnewi, South-east, said the people are relocating in droves because of the fear of, and activities of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB. He said they are fleeing to avoid   what he described as the “assault on them by heartless IPOB Bandits.”

He was reacting to IPOB’s latest orders of a sit-at-home  on October 1, 2021, and the removal of the Nigerian Flag from the Zone.

The orders have been greeted with outrage by a cross section of people and groups including the Nigeria Police Force, the Igbo Apex Cultural body, Ohaneze Ndigbo, and the Ijaw National Congress, INC.

October 1st, 2021, is Nigeria’s 61st Independence  Anniversary.

In a post, Igbokwe lamented  what IPOB has wrought on the South-east, and disclosed that Igbo people were now relocating to States outside the South-east to escape assaults insults and violent death.

On the order against October 1, Igbokwe described it as an affront to  the State of Nigeria, and called on State Governors and the Igbo who-is-who to step in arrest “the excesses of IPOB” before it is too late.

Igbokwe: “IPOB’s threat to attack the Nigerian flag on October 1st, 2021 in the South-east should not be treated with kid gloves.

“The sit-at-home order on that special day, and Independence day is an to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This is an attack on the corporate existence of Nigeria as a political entity and no Nation, big or small, will take this threat lightly.”

Igbokwe, also, warned that the action has consequences.

He wrote: “ACTIONS CARRY CONSEQUENCES!!!

The South-east Governors, Senators, HORs, South-east State Assemblies, the Speakers, Ohaneze Leadership, First Class Traditional Rulers, the Egg Heads, University Teachers, Business Tycoons, Intelligentsia, Market leaders, prominent politicians, etc, should rise up to check IPOB excesses in Igboland.

“Our people are relocating out of South-east to Delta State and some other States  for fear of attacks and assaults by heartless IPOB bandits.

“They have killed Policemen, attacked Police formations, burnt Police patrol vans, killed Soldiers, killed Priests, they have killed our people, looted their shops and countless atrocities which time and space will not permit me to mention here.

“Those who are pushing for this brigandage in the South-east are the lowest of the low in Igboland. They do not represent the thinking and aspirations of the vibrant SE citizens. I repeat that an attack on Nigeria’s Flag is an attack on Nigeria.”

IPOB, a secessionist group proscribed by the FG in 2017, has been pushing for an independent Republic of Biafra (comprising the South-east Zone), a consequence, the group claims, of persecution and marginalisation of the people.

Its Leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is in the custody of the Federal Government facing prosecution at a Federal High Court, Abuja, over sundry allegations, including treasonable felony and murder.

To pressurise for his release, IPOB had imposed a weekly (Mondays) Sit-At-Home order on the South-east Zone. It later reduced it to only the days Kanu would appear in Court.

That has not, mostly, been complied with by the people out of fear since some elements are still bent on enforcing the order.

A few days ago, IPOB said it would lock down the South-east for a month if Kanu does not appear in Court on the next adjourned date, October 21, 2021. The last time his case was called up, he was not brought to Court over what authorities say was “logistics reasons.” IPOB says its a grand plan to keep him in custody in perpetuity.

Sadly, the orders by IPOB have had no effect on the Federal Government, or on Kanu’s fate. Instead, it has ushered in untold hardship, unprecedented violence, blood, tears and sorrrow, and destruction and disruption, and deaths to the South-east.

And, now, according to Igbokwe, an exodus of the people from their own Igboland.