By Andy Ezugwu, Nsukka
Despite suspension of the every Monday sit-at-home order by the proscribed down order by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, over the detention of its leader, Maazi Nnamdi Kanu by the federal government of Nigeria, total compliance was still observed in Nsukka and other parts of Enugu State last Monday, August 16, 2021.
Recall that the sit-at-home which started on Monday August 9, 2021, had restricted the movement of people and socioeconomic activities including schools, banks, petrol stations, motor parks and business activities.
The order became somewhat controversial on its first day when the IPOB spokesperson, Emma Powerful, nullified a statement by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, suspending the sit-at-home order to allow students writing National Examination Council, NECO examinations participate in the exercise. Mr. powerful had insisted that anyone who disobeyed the order would “get it hot.”
Little wonder Orient Daily learnt that on the first day of the order, a group of men on masks went round the streets, markets and schools in Nsukka, forcing traders and school authorities to shut down their shops and schools. While some obeyed the instruction without hesitation, traders who were reluctant to obey were whipped home while students in schools fled home through the windows.
In Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of the state, it was reported that the masked men snatched the NECO examination papers of Monday August 9, 2021, from the supervisors and burned them to ashes.
Following the incidents of the previous week and in solidarity with the IPOB’s objective, residents of Nsukka urban and its environs on Monday August 16 locked down schools, banks, motor parks, petrol stations and markets.
Speaking to Orient Daily, a driver in one of the transport companies in Ogige Market, Nsukka, who preferred anonymity, charged the southeasterners to take the IPOB sit-at-home order serious to avoid uncertainties as some hoodlums may disguise themselves as IPOB members to hurt or rob people.
“Those who are still in doubt whether the lockdown order is certain or not, especially, the travelers should without doubt comply with the IPOB directives as conditions of releasing their leader, Maazi Nnamdi Kanu. This will save them from regrets and unnecessary sufferings along the way, as some of them are stranded at the park to notice that the transport companies did not plan to board passengers,” the driver said.
He maintained that there would be no other peaceful means to fight for the justice and the release of the IPOB leader and other marginalization facing Ndigbo in Nigeria order than the lockdown.