The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has called on the South East political leadership to rise to the challenge of dialoguing the zone out of the Monday sit-at-home quagmire instead of constantly seeking to use violence to resolve a problem that only requires persuasive communication to resolve.
In a statement released on Tuesday – earlier today, March 18 – by the group’s spokesman, Comrade Emma Powerful, IPOB said although the group had long ago banned Monday sit-at-home protest in the South East, the order by the army for the people to go about their normal life without a dialogue with all stakeholders to assure them of their safety even from the guns of security agents purportedly working to stop sit-at-home, would amount to efforts in futility.
Commending “voluntarily observing the Monday sit-at-home every week”, IPOB, in the statement by Powerful, however, noted that dialogue or not, the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader detained by the federal government for over three years now, would definitely end the Monday sit-at-home protest.
Sneering at the thoughtlessness of the army pledging to end sit-at-home by force, IPOB quipped: “Will the Nigerian Army go to the people’s houses to force them out on Mondays in order to end the sit-at-home? The answer is NO. Any responsible government would engage in dialogue and superior arguments to win the trust of citizens.”
“Ndigbo love Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and have chosen to sit-at-home on Mondays in solidarity with him.
“Igbo Governors and the Nigerian Government should toe the line of wisdom and release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and the Monday sit-at-home will immediately disappear. Blackmailing IPOB and ESN with Monday sit-at-home is a strategy that is dead on arrival.”
