As IPOB Gets Ready For Another Sit-At-Home Monday, Residents, Ohanaeze Decry Massive Loss

Thousands of residents, particularly traders in the five Southeast states remained in distress yesterday, five days after the first of the ‘Ghost Mondays’ declared by the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to press for the release of its detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

Many are still counting their losses-some human, some financial, some other assets- they incurred when IPOB sympathisers unleashed fury on those who decided to go about their businesses on day one of the sit-at-home protest.

A housewife told yesterday of how her husband suffered stroke on the fateful day because he could not be taken to the hospital for immediate treatment after falling ill unexpectedly.

The group is gearing up for the next round of protest on Monday.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo warned yesterday that the protest was misplaced.

The Chidi Ibeh-led group said continuation of ‘Ghost Monday’, rather than have a serious influence on President Muhammadu Buhari to release Kanu, can only lead to more self-inflicted catastrophes and destruction that will undermine the future of millions of Igbo pupils writing NECO examinations and worsen the untold hardships and agonies that Ndigbo are going through.

Secretary General of the group, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said: “This ‘Ghost Monday’ must discontinue to pave way for more diplomatic and political strategies to see that Nnamdi Kanu is released. Only local diplomacy intertwined with international coercion is required for Kanu’s release, not more absurd and futile sit at home. ”

According to him, “there were jubilations in some sections of the country, especially from the adversaries of Ndigbo as well as the dictatorial tyrants that had capitalised on these missteps to prepare Igboland as theatres for blood to flow ceaselessly and endless destruction of private and public properties to continue unabated.

“This gives rise to losses on all fronts for Igbo. Our losses took the place of our gains in the last sit-at-home. There must be a modification of strategy to avoid the rivalry and counter orders noticed within the ranks of exponents of sit-at-home and the image laundering that followed after.”

The group added: “Since the exponents of sit-at-home are resident in Europe and North America, they should allow Igbo in Nigeria to have a breath of fresh air as the economic crisis associated with COVID-19 has dealt hard blows on the parents of pupils writing NECO exams and those who lost their lives during the observation of sit-at-home.”

It begged “all and sundry to desist from actions capable of doing things more difficult to our collective survival and inflicting more calamities on the people who barely have two square meals on a daily basis.”

The Nation