Obi Says Stakeholders In South East Must Rise, Stop Continued Sit-At-Home Order

By Ayodele Oni

The Labour Party,(LP) Presidential Candidate in the February 25, 2023, Presidential Election, Peter Obi, has said disruption of businesses and social activities in the South-east  geopolitical zone occasioned by sit-at-home order amounts to ‘criminal activity’.

Obi said the Sit-at-Home directive purported to be coming from the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, (IPOB), when the body has publicly denied issuing such directive, needs to be handled with strategy and intelligence.

The LP chieftain in a tweet on Thursday declared that “What is going on in the South East, therefore, is essentially a criminal activity that must be nipped in the bud, with all hands being on deck, security agencies, and the people alike.”

According to him,  though the activities are being attributed to the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, the proscribed group has constantly distanced itself from the crimes.

“What is going on in the South-East therefore is essentially a criminal activity.”

While commending the Governors from the region, he said the States’ helmsmen needs to be more strategic and intelligence-driven.

“The South East Governors are to be commended for their renewed efforts at curbing this menace but there is a need to be more strategic and intelligence-driven in our approach to reducing the suffering of innocent people.

“Security Agencies should take necessary and quick steps to arrest the ugly incidents because the country cannot just be spilling the blood of innocent citizens.

“We, as a people, through our various Governments should up our value for human lives in the way and manner we respond to issues that touch lives.

“The implications of an insecure environment for development are far-reaching because no investor will consider going to an area where their resources will not be safe and secured.

“Therefore, I will like to urge critical stakeholders in these areas, traditional, Christian, and Muslim leaders to continue pushing for peace among their people in the way and manner they conduct themselves.

“The various governments at all levels should also take deliberate steps to address the issue of poverty and youth unemployment because the provision of stomach infrastructure is the surer way to tackle insecurity.

“Also, urgent steps should be taken consciously and intentionally to ameliorate the hardship of the people.”