Senator representing Anambra South, Ifeanyi Ubah, has said it is time for businesses in the state to open on the first weekday.
This was as the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, once again, refuted the claim that it declared a one-week sit-at-home exercise across the South-East region.
Ubah who spoke in support of Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s appeal to the people of Anambra State to shun the Monday sit-at-home order by non-state actors during an interview on Channels Television, stated that the sit-at-home order is hurting Anambra businesses.
He said; “We have observed the sit-at-home for nearly two years now and every Monday, all business activity in our state is paralysed.
“Because of that, we the stakeholders of my senatorial district have come to a conclusion that it’s time for us to open our businesses on Monday. Some people who are not residents of our zone or even in the country have used this sit-at-home to create fear in people and, at the same time, are making money and impoverishing our people. It is time for us to move on.”
Ubah also revealed that schools in the entire state are closed on Mondays as the world moved forward. He added;
“If the world is moving on and almost every part of this country is moving on and our children would not be going to school, our businesses are closed, then we are losing a very serious economy.
“That is the essence of our being elected: to serve our people and to look at what is good for our people.”
The lawmaker also criticised the continued detention of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, by the Department of State Services (DSS). Ubah said;
“I think what we need is constructive engagement with the Federal Government on the release of our brother, Nnamdi Kanu. But using that as an opportunity to paralyse the activities of the South-East, to me, is totally unacceptable henceforth.”
Meanwhile, the pro-Biafran group said the distancing itself from the rumoured one-week sit-at-home in South-East became necessary because of the tension and panic in the reion.
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The rumour of a one-week sit-at-home, starting from June 3 to June 9, purportedly declared by Simon Ekpa’s faction of the IPOB group has been making the rounds across the region for some days now.
Reacting to the development in a statement on Monday, the IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, said South-East residents should ignore the “rabble-rousers”, insisting there is no such thing as sit-at-home.
The statement read in part, “The leadership of the IPOB, the Directorate of State and the supreme leader of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu wish to publicly disassociate IPOB from any purported call for a one-week sit-at-home for Biafrans.
“These clarifications have become necessary because Biafrans have sent inquiries asking if the IPOB leadership has called for a sit-at-home. IPOB is not part of such irresponsible order from government-paid agents whose agenda is to ridicule the struggle to restore Biafra sovereignty.
“Therefore, Biafrans should ignore the rabble-rousers. There is no sit-at-home scheduled. The purported one-week sit-at-home jingle on social media is not from IPOB. We are not in the business of issuing irresponsible and non-existent sit-at-home orders. IPOB is a responsible movement and family. Our aims and objectives are to give peace and freedom to our people not to inflict more pain on the pains Nigeria has already inflicted on us.
“How can we be keeping our people indoors for one week at these harsh economic times in Nigeria? Our people should start reasoning. Some Federal Government agents are trying to make the South-East unattractive for our people to return to. They have failed.”
The group noted that those piloting IPOB affairs are intellectuals who know when to apply different strategies and cannot indulge in activities that will impact negatively the people.
“Our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu cannot indulge in anything that will increase our people’s suffering. Our people should ignore the useless one-week sit-at-home order from agents claiming to be fighting for Biafra’s freedom.
“Some of the foot soldiers of these Nigerian Agents in the diaspora don’t realize that they were being used by enemies of Biafra to suffer Biafrans in order to make Biafra agitation championed by Kanu’s IPOB unattractive. But their agenda is dead on arrival.
“Therefore, the public should ignore any rumours about a one-week sit-at-home in the South-East. Those behind these devilish orders are not IPOB members, and they are not working for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu,” it added.
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.
