Sit-at-home order: 12 IPOB members arrested
Twelve members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in Enugu
have been arrested by men of the Enugu State Police Command for urging
traders at the Ogbete Main Market, Enugu, to comply with the
‘Sit-at-home’ protest declared to hold on Friday by IPOB.
The suspects were alleged to have breached public peace by using public
address systems in compelling the traders to close their shops on
Friday 23 September, in support of IPOB/ MASSOB’s continued protest for
the release of the IPOB leader, Dr Nnamdi Kanu.
The Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu,
confirmed the arrest of the 12 suspects in a press statement issued to
newsmen in Enugu yesterday.
He vowed that they would be charged to court immediately as soon as investigations on the matter were concluded.
Amaraizu said: “Suspects were nabbed inside the popular Ogbete Market
of Enugu State as they allegedly went into the market with public
address systems to threaten and inflict fear on members of the public,
precisely the marketers not to open their shops from 20 September and
that if anyone flouts the order, that person will be dealt with by the
group”.
Among the items recovered from the 12 IPOB suspects, according to
Amaraizu, were 21 GSM phones of different sizes, flags with IPOB
imprints, public address systems and one wireless microphone.
Meanwhile, the struggle for the actualisation of the state of Biafra
took a new dimension with the emergence of a new pro-Biafra group,
Ancestors Warriors of Biafra (AWOB), which has threatened woes to
churches that encourage their followers to pray for Nigeria’s political
and economic survival.
In a release made available to newsmen in Onitsha, yesterday, the
General Commander of the group, General Nworie Onyeabo Ukwani, said the
warning has become pertinent as most Churches preach for the survival
of Nigeria as a country during their crusades, fellowships, regular
worships and other intercessory sessions.
He called on religious leaders to stop deceiving their congregations
and face the challenges on hand by preaching freedom in their various
churches.
Gen. Ukwani warned that the group would soon ban the recitation of the
Nigerian National Anthem in schools in the South East, including the
National Pledge and other symbols of the country’s sovereignty.
He stressed that the people would not continue to pledge their loyalty
to a country that thrives in injustice and denial of gifted and
dedicated people of Biafra of their natural rights and infrastructural
development of their territory.
The release further hinted that with the emergence of the new
pro-Biafra group, all the anomalies aimed at further impoverishing and
marginalising the South East masses would be a thing of the past.
He urged every school teacher and pastor in the region to start
mobilizing support for the group for the actualisation of their goals.
However, reacting to the alleged emergence of the new pro-Biafra group,
Emmanuel Powerful, Media and Publicity Secretary of the Indigenous
Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, told The AUTHORITY that any group was free to
emerge, but insisted that any group that wants to achieve its
objectives through force and intimidation cannot survive.
He added that to actualize Biafra, major actors should use moral
suasion, negotiation, propaganda and peaceful protests – not force and
intimidation.
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