The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has urged Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State not to intimidate citizens participating in the Monday sit-at-home protest, describing the demonstration as a peaceful and lawful show of solidarity with its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
In a statement issued to journalists in Owerri, IPOB spokesperson Emma Powerful said the sit-at-home is a legitimate form of civil disobedience and that residents have the constitutional right to protest without fear of reprisal.
The group also warned the governor against setting up task forces or employing any measures to force citizens to open their businesses on Mondays, describing such actions as provocative and oppressive.
“Any attempt to coerce or intimidate citizens exercising their right to peaceful protest will be viewed as an act of oppression,” the statement read, reiterating IPOB’s stance on lawful civic action.
His statement reads in part: “Let it be stated clearly and without ambiguity: Anambra is not a military barracks. The people are not tenants in their own land. No Governor has the lawful power to compel free citizens to open their businesses or move about against their will, especially when their action is a peaceful, non-violent expression of conscience.
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“Governor Soludo, as a man who parades the title ‘Professor,’ should be the first to recognise the elementary democratic principle called civil disobedience, a peaceful refusal to cooperate with policies and conditions viewed as unjust.
“If businessmen, traders, students, professionals, elders and youths voluntarily choose to sit at home on Mondays as a silent protest against the continued detention and persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, that is their right. It is not a crime. It is not rebellion. It is not an offence.
“A government that turns peaceful protest into punishable misconduct is simply declaring war on the people’s dignity. Governor Soludo must not pretend he does not understand what is happening. Nobody is deceived.
“The frustration in Igboland is deep. The anger is justified. The pain is historic. And the Monday sit-at-home is a token expression of that collective burden.
“But instead of confronting the injustice that fuels agitation, the Governor has chosen the weak and disgraceful route of harassing his own people to be seen as ‘loyal’ by Abuja power brokers who have shown nothing but contempt for Igbo lives and Igbo dignity.
“When criminal violence is tolerated elsewhere, and killers are pampered, negotiated with, and incentivised under ‘rehabilitation,’ it is a tragedy that an Igbo governor would devote his energy to threatening traders, punishing youths, and blackmailing citizens for choosing to stay in their homes peacefully.
“We issue this warning in the strongest possible terms: If Governor Soludo, in his desperation for applause, proceeds to establish any task force, enforcement squad, or vigilante-style unit to coerce citizens into opening shops through threats, extortion, harassment, arrests, or intimidation, then he has crossed a red line. That will not be governance, that will be provocation, that will be oppression. “And the people will treat it for what it is: an open declaration of hostility against the spirit of Biafra and the collective resolve of Ndị Igbo.
“We do not force people to sit at home. “But no government will force them to go out. The sit-at-home is voluntary. It is a choice. It is a personal and collective statement of solidarity. People who stay home on Mondays do so because they believe sacrifice is part of the struggle for justice and freedom.
“Governor Soludo should focus on the mandate he begged for: security, infrastructure, jobs, and development. If he truly believes in the ‘Dubai’ rhetoric he sold to Anambra people, then he should deliver it through competence, not coercion.
“A governor who fights traders for protesting injustice is not building Dubai. “He is building resentment. “He is planting division. “He is igniting a fire he cannot control.
“The solution is not threats. The solution is justice. The solution is the release of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who is the symbol of our freedom and hope. “Until that injustice is addressed, every Monday will remain a day of silent protest. Not by decree. Not by violence. But by conscience,” Powerful stated.
