Sit-at-home Ill-Advised, Counter-Productive, Blurs Our Demands, Agitations – Ndigbo

By Charles Igbo

At a joint meeting of the Anambra State Government, Traditional Rulers, and Clerics, as well as, allegedly, representatives of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, it was unanimously agreed that the Sit-at-home order imposed by IPOB on Igboland has done more harm than good to the Region and the people.

The meeting  held in Awka,  was to discuss the security situation in Anambra as well as the South-east in general.

Attended by very high profile  Igbo, it was agreed that the sit-at-home order imposed on the region blurs whatever grievances and Agitations the Region has.

In the wake of the arrest in June, 2021, of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB had declared a weekly, every-Monday  Sit-at-home order in Igboland to pressurise the Federal Government into releasing Kanu. But it has had no effect, as the FG has hardly taken any notice. Instead, it has brought untold hardship to the people.

For instance, it has completely grounded the Zone, reduced its economy to zero, disrupted education and all social lives. Worse, it engineered the killing of hundreds of people.

IPOB had, earlier, under pressure and appeals limited it to only the days Kanu would appear in Court, but it has not been a full success, as people still get harassed, properties destroyed, and lives even list. The suspicion is that a rogue IPOB has hijacked it as IPOB Spokesman, Emma Powerful, has consistently denied IPOB’s complicity, declaring the enforcers criminals.

But in a communique issued at the end of the meeting, the Leaders noted that: “It is abundantly clear that the Monday Sit-at-home is ill-advised and counter-productive.”

They also noted that it has not helped the call for the release of Kanu or IPOB’s cause.

They noted in the communique: “While we have severally and individually supported the call for his release from incarceration, the experience of the past 14 months, however, leaves no iota of doubt that the Sit-at-home is blurring the intent and objective of the agitation and it is time for us to count our losses and move. It is beyond doubt that the Sit-at-home exercise has done incalculable damage to the economy of Anambra State and indeed the South-east.”

In the past few days, insecurity has escalated both in Anambra and Imo States.  IPOB denies complicity.

IPOB has, reportedly, agreed to end all Sit-at-home order. And days of prayers for peace in the Zone has been fixed. Following is the full text of the Communiqué, and its signatories.

Joint Statement by The Government of Anambra State and the Joint Body of South East Council of Traditional Rulers and Bishops/Archbishops on the State of Insecurity in the Igbo Homesteads

Preamble

1. Further to the call by the Joint Body of South East Council of Traditional Rulership and Bishops/Archbishops (Joint Body) on Peace and Conflict Resolution in October 2021 for restoration of genuine peace and normalcy in the South East based on justice, equity, fairness, love, mutual understanding and respect; and to the invitation of the new Governor of Anambra State, at his inauguration address on March 17, 2022, to all non-State Actors to interrogate their goals and methods, the representatives of the Traditional Rulers and Religious Leaders in Anambra State convened a meeting with representatives of the Anambra State Government and the Counsel to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to consider path ways to restore normalcy in Anambra State.
2. You may recall that a number of groups have previously called on the Federal Government to free Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to no avail. Indeed, the present Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, solidarized with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, whilst he was held in Kuje prison, awaiting trial, on February 28, 2017 an…