There was total compliance to IPOB’s sit-at-home order in yesterday’s Remembrance Day observed in the five Southeastern states – Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo – and in the United States of America.
While U.S. President Joe Biden saluted the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in memory of its fallen service members at the National Cemetery, streets in Southeast Nigeria were deserted as the former separatist region commemorated the death of over one million people who died in the Biafra war half a century ago.
Markets and roads were empty in the major cities of Aba, Owerri and Awka, heart of the former ‘Republic of Biafra’, in a renewed push by the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), to remember the war victims and heroes with a strict order for people to remain indoors yesterday.
In Imo, economic and social activities in all the 27 local councils suffered a serious setback as everyone remained indoors. Apart from those who opted to respect IPOB’s ‘sit-at-home’ order, many others stayed away for fear of being arrested by security personnel, who had been deployed to keep the peace after Sunday’s gruesome murder of ex-presidential aide, Ahmed Gulak.
The roads were deserted, markets were closed and public transport services were withdrawn by operators. Some school owners announced compulsory mid-term holiday to enable pupils remain at home with their parents.
Areas with heavy security presence include Akachi, Okigwe, and Dick Tiger Roads, Imo State University Junction, Control Junction, Airport Junction, Obiangwu-Ngor Okpala, Amakohia-Akwakuma Flyover, and the World Bank/Umuguma Junction.
Military helicopters were seen hovering around the Sam Mbakwe Cargo Airport as part of the security surveillance in the area.
It was the same story of empty streets, closed shops and deserted roads in Umuahia, Abia’s capital city, and Aba, the commercial nerve centre. Residents fully complied with the sit-at-home order.
The regular street parades that usually attract heavy response from security agencies was missing. The leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, had while giving directives on the observance of this year’s Biafra Day, strictly warned against any street protest, saying that people should stay indoors and mourn the fallen Biafra heroes who died in the 30- month civil war and those that have been killed by security forces in the ongoing crackdown on separatist agitators.
Though there was no official sanction of the day in the Southeast, government institutions were grounded by the sit-at-home directive. Banks and other corporate businesses equally shut their gates to customers for fear of being attacked by hoodlums.
Residents decided to stay indoors after reading and listening to several statements from pro-agitators that its monitoring team “will move round and deal with anybody found to violate the sit-at-home order.”
A source stated that the inability of security operatives to arrest and prevent several attacks on their facilities by unknown gunmen heightened fears in the people, adding that the guns snatched from security agents could be deployed to enforce compliance. And true to the threats, gun-carrying and masked men moved unrestrained through major streets in the zone yesterday.
In Anambra, the sit-at-home was successful. The roads from Awka to Onitsha to Nnewi and Ekwulobia were deserted, looking like ghost cities, while vehicles were equally not seen, despite security presence everywhere.
IPOB spokesman, Comrade Emma Powerful, expressed delight that this year’s sit-at-home order recorded 100 per cent success throughout Biafra land. In a statement, he commended Biafrans, Southeast governors and lovers of Biafra freedom, whom, he said, made the exercise a huge success.
The exercise in Enugu recorded major casualties as three policemen were killed yesterday in various parts of the metropolis. It was gathered that one policeman was killed near CBN, along Okpara Avenue and two at Mgbeme area of Coal Camp.
Also in Ebonyi, the exercise led to the violent death of five persons. There was a gun duel between the police and IPOB agitators within Ebebe junction in Abakaliki, the capital city.
Gunmen yesterday burnt the Amandugba Divisional Police Headquarters in Isu Local Government Area of Imo State. The latest development had increased to four the number of Divisional Police Headquarters razed in the state in less than one week.
The development heightened the tension in the state as residents totally complied with the sit-at-home order. The burning of the police facility was the only violent development in the state.
