- IPOB warned Governor Soludo not to force residents to abandon planned Monday sit-ins at home, saying the protests were peaceful and lawful.
- IPOB warned governors not to set up any task force or use force to force traders and residents to open their businesses or move freely on Monday.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has warned Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, against intimidating residents planning to attend a proposed Monday home protest.
In a statement from its spokesperson Emma Powerful, the group called the sit-in at home a peaceful and legal way to express solidarity with its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
IPOB warned governors not to set up any task force or use force to force traders and residents to open their businesses or move freely on Monday. The group said such behavior amounted to provocation and oppression.
His statement reads in part: “Let this be clear and unambiguous: Anambra is not a military camp. The people are not tenants in their own land. No governor has the legal authority to force free citizens to open businesses or move against their will, especially when their actions are peaceful, non-violent expressions of conscience.
Governor Soludo, as a man who claims the title of “professor,” should be the first to recognize the fundamental democratic principle of civil disobedience, the peaceful refusal to cooperate with policies and conditions deemed unjust.
“If businessmen, traders, students, professionals, the elderly and the young voluntarily choose to sit at home every Monday and stage a silent protest against the continued detention and persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, that is their right. This is not a crime. This is not rebellion. This is not a crime.
“A government that turns peaceful protest into punishable misconduct is tantamount to a declaration of war on the dignity of the people. Governor Soludo must not pretend that he does not understand what is going on. No one is deceived.
“The frustration in Igboland runs deep. The anger is justified. The pain is historic. Monday’s sit-in at home symbolically expressed this collective burden
“But instead of confronting the injustice that fueled the agitation, the Governor chose the weak and shameful route of harassing his own people in order to be seen as ‘loyal’ by the Abuja power brokers who have shown nothing but contempt for Igbo lives and Igbo dignity.
“It is a tragedy that Igbo governors devote their energies to threatening businessmen, punishing young people and extorting citizens who choose to remain in their homes peacefully, when criminal violence is tolerated elsewhere and murderers are condoned, negotiated and incentivized under ‘rehabilitation’.
“We issue this warning in the strongest possible terms: If Governor Soludo creates any task force, enforcement team, or vigilante-style unit to force citizens to open shop through threats, extortion, harassment, arrest, or intimidation just for the sake of applause, then he has crossed a red line. That is not governance, that would be provocation, that would be oppression.
“It will be taken for what it is: an openly hostile declaration of Biafra spirit and the collective resolve of the Igbo people.
“We will not force people to stay home. But no government will force them out. Staying home is voluntary. It is a choice. It is a statement of solidarity, both individual and collective. People who stay home every Monday do so because they believe sacrifice is part of the fight for justice and freedom.
“Governor Soludo should focus on the mandate he requested: security, infrastructure, jobs and development. If he truly believes in the ‘Dubai’ rhetoric he is selling to the people of Anambra, then he should achieve this through competency and not coercion.
“A governor who fights against businessmen protesting injustice is not building Dubai. He is creating resentment. He is creating division. He is lighting a fire that he cannot control.
“The solution is not a threat. The solution is justice. The solution is the release of Oyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, a symbol of our freedom and hope.
“Until this injustice is addressed, every Monday will be a day of silent protest. Not by decree. Not by violence. But by conscience.”
