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The Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB has reiterated that the group is neither attacking the police nor know those attacking them but is only advising its members to stay indoor.
The group stated this on Saturday through its Media and Publicity Secretary Worldwide, Mr. Emma Powerful.
“We are not attacking police, we don’t know them or those attacking police. We are telling our people to stay indoor because Nigeria police and Army will kill them and tagged them ESN and IPOB.”
It called on all Igbo people living in the South East region to obey Monday sit-at-home order to avoid being victims of Army and police.
Powerful maintained that IPOB or Eastern security Network (ESN) are not unknown gunmen or bandits and charge the Security Agencies to use their weapons on bandits and other criminal elements adding that IPOB are peaceful people.
“Sit at home is going to commence on 30th evening with a candle night procession on Monday, and there will be a total lockdown.”
“So everybody should stay indoors to avoid being victims of the Army.”
Powerful also debunked audio records going viral in social media as falsehood.
The audio records says “From 29th May, by 6pm there will be no movement until 6pm of 30th May, there will be no traffic, no market, nothing. So, if you claim to be strong, come outside.
“12 midnight of 29 is candle night, I said no movement, if you have your relatives coming from abroad tell them and if you want to be in Lagos or Abuja make sure you are there 12 o’clock on 29 because 6pm on Biafra land if you are there, you are dead.”
One of the founders of IPOB in Enugu, Chief Samuel Ani, said “the sit-at-home order was shifted to Monday so that people can go to church and seek God’s presence.
He noted also that “the sit-at-home order is to pay respect to the Biafra falling heroes.”
Ani, however, urged Igbos to obey the order while he prayed to God to make Biafra a reality.
Meanwhile, the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) has backed IPOB on the sit-at-home order, saying that May 30 has become an official Igbo Remembrance Day not only within Alaigbo, but throughout the entire world where Igbo citizens live.
A statement by the ADF President, Prof Uzodinma Nwala and the Chairman, ADF Media and Publicity Bureau, Chief Abia Onyike, on Friday, said, “May 30 is a day in the history of Alaigbo, deeply rooted in the heart of our people and which nobody can wish away or ban by force of Law or prevent by force of arms.”
ADF said May 30 mark the day Biafra was declared in 1967, noting that no patriotic Igbo son or daughter could pretend that Biafra was not part of the history and the major water-shed in the history of the Igbo nation.
The statement reads, “Events in Alaigbo on May 30, each year show that May 30 has become an official Igbo Remembrance Day not only within Alaigbo but throughout the entire world where Igbo citizens live.
Each year from London to Johannesburg, to several cities in Europe, Asia, America and Canada, the story is the same with various activities organized by Umuigbo and their friends to mark the occasion.
“Back home, the entire Alaigbo have often been shut down; markets, shops, schools and offices closed while streets are deserted to mark the Remembrance Day.
“If anyone is in doubt, let him recall what has often happened on May 30, especially in 2017 and 2018 when our sons and daughters under the aegis of IPOB, MASSOB and other Pan-Igbo organizations declared a SIT-AT-HOME to commemorate Biafra Day as a historic day in the life of Ndigbo, while other forms of memorial activities take place to mark the historic day.
“The total compliance of that call throughout the length and breadth of Alaigbo was not because these pan-Igbo and pro-Biafra organizations had become their supreme authority. No! That call evokes intense yearning in the innermost recesses of the hearts and minds of Umuigbo.
“Consequently, whosoever provoked the observance is welcome as a lover of the Igbo nation. Biafra evokes intense longing for freedom for our people. Biafra is indeed more than a state of the mind. It is also a material force that moves our people.
“Why will Biafra not symbolize their longing for freedom, when their predicament since the Amalgamation in 1914 up to the Biafra Declaration on My 30, 1967 and ever since Biafra has been a continuous state of estrangement, brutal attacks and punitive measures against their spiritual, economic, political and physical survival?
“The Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), therefore, proposes that Umuigbo should turn May 30 every year to be observed as a REMEMBRANCE DAY – a day to remember our history, to review our successes and failures, to remember those who have died fighting for the Igbo cause and also think of our future.”
The outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), therefore, has declared May 31, sit-at-home in the entire Southeastern part of Nigeria.
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