Nigeria: Ghostly towns in South-East as agitators want Biafra

Pro Biafra group declares sit-at-home

Nigeria: Ghostly towns in South-East as agitators want Biafra

Major towns in the South-East Nigeria: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states are ghostly on Wednesday as separatist groups in the region declare sit-at-home action to demand re-declaration of defunct Biafra Republic.  

Our correspondents in Awka, Anambra State said the streets are deserted and ‘government workers managed to go to their offices.

“Everywhere is ghostly. The streets are empty. We manage to come to work for fear of sanctions but no one is going out. The situation is even worst in Onitsha”, a civil servant told our correspondent.

The source said that the action was intended to honour persons killed in pursuit of declaration of Biafra.

Posters have already saturated major road junctions and streets, bidding people to comply with the directive.

In Enugu, we gathered that the secessionist group nearly took over the government house but for the intervention of Nigerian security forces who overpowered them.

Markets, yesterday, witnessed a large turnout of people and increased business activities following the announcement: “There will be no movements, no markets (opening) from the evening of May 29 to the evening of May 30 in the southeast zone.”, The Guardian newspaper said.

A statement by IPOB’s deputy leader, Mazi Uche Mefor, reads in part: “It is about remembering and honouring those who fought valiantly against the 1966-1970 genocide and those who could not make their way safely to the east, as they succumbed to the sheer numbers and bloodlust of their supposed northern compatriots, who sought their gruesome death for nothing but jealousy and the speaking of a different tongue.

“It is also about saluting the supreme sacrifice of all Biafrans, who have formed the only bulwark against the renewed vigour of hatred of Biafrans that has reemerged since May 30, 2015. Many have died resisting, many have been maimed and many have been traumatised. But for all of us who continue to survive, the only thing that makes us human, gives us honour and succour is to sit at home and remember.”

The statement adds: “But May 30 does not just remind us of the sacrifice of the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the great Biafran resistance of 1967-1970, but also of those who followed them in later conflicts; those who, in this era, stepped out to the streets of Igweocha, Onitsha, Aba, etc., to protest the resurgence of evil, those who were murdered at the vigil in Aba, those who were mowed down at Nkpor, and those who, more recently, lost their precious young lives at various locations in Biafraland, including at Afara-Ukwu, Umuahia. We wish Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi and the Fulani masters of the Arewa Consultative Forum will appreciate this point.”

However, a South-East state governor, David Umahi of Ebonyi State agreed that South-East people were being marginalized but kicked against separatist actions.

He warned that traders in the state who fail to open their shops today would “forever” forfeit the same to government.

“Anybody that flouts this order will be decisively dealt with. I ask Ebonyi people to go about their businesses freely and peacefully. Let me say that when we, the southeast governors, say that we don’t want the activities of IPOB, it does not mean that we are very happy with the marginalisation of the region in the affairs of our nation.

“But we are saying the way IPOB is going about to address the matter is not right. The right way is what Ohanaeze Ndigbo did. We call on the government to address the issue of marginalisation. We believe in one Nigeria founded in equity.”