IPOB dissociates itself from week-long sit-at-home order

THE Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has dismissed an audio message circulating on social media asking residents of the southeast to observe a one-week sit-at-home from July 3 to 10.

The sit-at-home order, purported to have come from IPOB, with the tag #FreeNnamdiKanu, is aimed at forcing the Federal Government to release Nnamdi Kanu, who has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

The audio message claimed that there will be dire consequences for anyone who ventures out on the said dates.

But the media and publicity secretary of IPOB, Mr Emma Powerful, when contacted on Wednesday, said that the audio message was not from his group.

“You must know whom madness sit-at-home is, and the criminal who is illegally destroying our land.

“I will issue an official press release against it in two to three days to the date declared in the audio, but for now, the leadership (of IPOB) has asked me not to give it attention or attraction,” he said.

IPOB had first declared every Monday a sit-at-home day in the South East, as a way to compel the Federal Government to release its leader Kanu, but later canceled it, upon plea that the exercise was taking a toll on the economy of the region.

However, since its cancelation, some hoodlums have continued to enforce it, making many to compulsorily sit at home every Monday, despite IPOB’s assurances.

A factional leader of the group, Simon Ekpa, who is based in Finland, has continually supported the Monday exercise, and even threatened governors of Anambra and Enugu, Prof Chukwuma Soludo and Mr Peter Mbah respectively, who had spoken and cancelled the exercise in their states.