By Uche Amunike
The much announced Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB’s) Sit-at-Home order given by the secessionist group ahead of the long awaited November 6 Anambra gubernatorial election, has been called off by them.
This was made known in a statement signed by its Director of Publicity, Comrade Emma Powerful on Thursday, November 4 2021.
In his statement, Powerful stated that their reason for having the sit-at-home order suspended was due to the appeals made by elders in the South East concerning the grave economic implications it will have on the people.
They therefore had to have the Sit-at-Home order suspended, so that citizens can come out and exercise their franchise at the November 6 governorship election.
The statement also explained that the group considered several appeals made by their mothers who earn their living based on their daily economic activities which will be disrupted if the zone is locked down for one whole week and that they didn’t have the intention of adding to the pains of the masses. This presumably left them with no choice then to have their sit-at-home order suspended.
Still on the reason for IPOB’s sit-at-home order suspension, they vouched that their leadership is only interested in their referendum and peaceful agitation of self determination, while maintaining that they cannot under any circumstances, be seen to be interfering with any electoral process.
They urged the people of Anambra State to come out in their numbers and peacefully use their voting rights on November 6, 2016. He encouraged them to choose a leader of their choice without being intimidated by anybody, group, persons or even security agents.
The group, in their statement, urged the Anambra electorate to vote and stand by, in order to protect their votes as no form of rigging will be tolerated in the Anambra state governorship election, as they are calling for it to be transparent, free and fair to all.
They however warned their oppressors against considering their decision to have the Sit-at-home order suspended as an act of cowardice, saying that their group still believes that their elders, religious leaders, political leaders and various stakeholders will fulfill their promises in their engagements towards securing the unconditional release of their leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
They signed off the statement by urging the general public to go about their lawful businesses without any fear of molestation and praying that all ‘agents of darkness’ recruited by their enemies to cause pain on their people under the guise of enforcing the sit-at-home were warned to steer clear or face the consequences of their evil action.
On the part of security agencies however, a press release has been made by the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, through the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, where he stated that will be restriction of vehicular movements in and out of Anambra state from 11:59pm on Friday 5th November 2021 to 11:59pm on Saturday 6th November 2021.
This, he said, was necessary because of the pointers from the Election Security Threats Assessments held by the force, which indicates a high likelihood of infiltration by criminally minded infidels to Anambra state, before, during and after the polls.
He assured that the vehicular restriction would avail security forces a firm grip of the state to checkmate the movement of political thugs and prevent the free flow, circulation and use of hard drugs throughout the period and beyond.
