The Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) began distributing fliers and posters around the southeast on Saturday to inform locals of the cancellation of the region’s sit-at-home action.
Emma Powerful, IPOB’s spokesperson, disclosed this in a statement titled, “Monday weekly sit-at-home: An ugly phase of a bygone history that must never be repeated, as echoed by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”
Powerful added that the exercise was intended to express Nnamdi Kanu’s decision to cancel Monday’s sit-in.
According to the group, “Any person or persons talking about a non-existent sit-at-home in the south-east is an enemy of the people and shall be dealt with accordingly.
“The exercise also aims to inform the people that sit-at-home is not only “dead” but will also never again be invoked or deployed as a tool of civil disobedience in the group’s quest for self-determination,” he added.
According to him, the detained IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, authorised the instructions to hand out flyers and paste posters to that effect.
Powerful’s statement cautioned that anyone discussing sit-at-home in Igbo country was still an enemy of the people and would be dealt with accordingly.
The statement reads in part, “It is to be stated for the umpteenth time, for those who may feign ignorance of the laws governing the conduct expected of the IPOB family worldwide, that our supreme leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has ordered the permanent end to Monday sit-at-home in the south-east.
“Anybody seen enforcing this illegal and non-existent Monday sit-at-home will be apprehended and summarily dealt with on the spot.
“The criminal elements are not working for IPOB nor the release of Kanu, who is detained in the DSS solitary confinement in Abuja.
“Those purporting to be running a Biafra Government in exile from somewhere in Finland, also known as Autopilot, are not IPOB members, and their activities do not represent the views of Kanu, rank and file IPOB membership, or ESN operatives.
“It is a shame to the memory of our late members that gave their lives for the IPOB struggle that individuals that never led ordinary street protests in the south-east or anywhere in the world in support of IPOB can claim to lead our people.
“This is an absolute disgrace,” Powerful stressed.
He said “these shameless parasites” and their sponsors were hoping that the mere attachment of the names Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB, and ESN to their criminal enterprise would provide legitimacy to continue duping the gullible.
“The social media—Biafra Government in Exile (BGIE)—has nothing to do with IPOB and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“Kanu has nothing to do with them and will never have anything to do with them.
“IPOB does not have any government in exile and will never have any government in exile.
“People who never led a protest anywhere in the world, were never detained, or held meetings with any international bodies can never claim to represent our people.
“We, therefore, encourage people of the south-east to help in the distribution of the flyers and posters to communities, hinterlands, and cities in the region, signifying the requiem mass for the senseless Monday sit-at-home.
“We warn once again that anybody apprehended enforcing any sit-at-home will regret his life, and the self-acclaimed leader of BGIE will not save such a person,” the group stated.