As Enugu State witnessed another lockdown today in observance of the every Monday sit-at-home ordered by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to pressure the federal government to release its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, some of his supporters have said only the IPOB leader would be able to end the lockdown.
Though IPOB had announced the suspension of the sit-at-home, people in the geopolitical one had out of fear of the unknown continued to stay away from the roads, markets, shops, offices and other business premises on Mondays. Today’s compliance in Enugu was even higher than the previous Monday following what the people attributed to the IPOB statement at the weekend that it uncovered plans by Nigerian security agencies to disguise some people as Eastern Security Network (ESN) members to force people not to come out yesterday.
While the previous Monday banks, fuel stations and street shops were opened for business, today was a total lockdown, as people were afraid of attacks. However, some supporters of Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB who spoke to Daily Sun yesterday said it would be difficult to end the lockdown every Monday except the order comes directly from the IPOB leader. One of them who gave his name simply as Chike said, “This sit-at-home will continue until Nnamdi Kanu addresses us, he is the only leader we know. If he says today that it should stop you will see how it will be obeyed. “Nobody in Igboland now will go against this order no matter how it hurts you. Again we have to continue it to drum our feelings to the ears of President Buhari and his men to free our leader, Nnamdi Kanu.”
Another resident Joachim Eneh said, “Yes, we heard two weeks ago from IPOB spokesman, Powerful that the sit-at-home has been suspended, that it will hold on the days Kanu will go to court, but you can see that it is not stopping. I am sure people are afraid and only Kanu can resolve this, especially now that there is some issues within the group.
Meanwhile, some other residents have called for an end to the Monday sit-at-home, arguing that it was not doing good for the South East. “Who is losing in all these things, is it not still our people? Do you think, Aso Rock cares about the losses you are incurring here because of this? No! IPOB said it has suspended it, our people should stop being afraid, can you quantify what we have lost in these three Mondays? It is enormous and something should be done about it,” a civil servant who pleaded anonymity said. (Daily Sun)
