Activist Blasts IPOB, Says Forcing People to Sit-at-Home Through Violence Is Disgusting
- The recent sit-at-home by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is still generating reactions across the country
- A human rights activist, Okechukwu Nwanguma, says the approach adopted by IPOB to drive home its demands is shameful
- The activist condemned the violence that was witnessed in some states of the southeast over the sit-at-home order
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Lagos - Human rights activist Okechukwu Nwanguma has cautioned the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its members on their approach to enforce it sit at home order across the southeast.
Nwanguma told the secessionist group that forcing people to sit at home and using deadly force and violence to enforce it was untactful and despicable.
Source: Getty Images
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Daily Sun newspaper quoted him as saying:
“I have read disturbing news about attacks, burning of vehicles, and killing of persons accused of violating the IPOB declared sit-at-home orders in parts of the southeast.
“The state of the economy and suffering is extremely bad for ordinary citizens, especially those who depend entirely on daily income for daily meals and survival.
“Any strategy or action to drive home a point or to advance the struggle for the emancipation of a people should not negatively impact or worsen the condition of the same people for whom you claim to wage that struggle.
“Otherwise, such a struggle is no longer for, or in the interest of, the people.
“Forcing people to sit at home and using deadly force and violence to enforce it is untactful and despicable. People should be allowed to exercise their free will.
“In particular, setting ablaze commercial vehicles carrying passengers who are part of the people you purport to be fighting for is a purely criminal act and not part of any legitimate or rational struggle.
“It will have the consequence, among others, of discrediting the struggle and denuding it of public sympathy and support.”
The Punch newspaper reports that the sit-at-home order by IPOB turned bloody on Monday, August 9 as hoodlums wreaked havoc in Anambra and Imo states.
According to the report, four policemen and four other persons were killed in both states.
Recall that a lawyer, Prince Christopher Muo, on Tuesday, August 10 said the disruption of the National Examination Council, NECO, mathematics examination in the southeast region may keep students in the zone at their homes for the next four years.
Muo made the comment while reacting to the inability of students to write their NECO mathematics paper, as a result of the sit-at-home order declared by IPOB on Monday, August 9.
He added the failure of the students to write their examinations could be an impediment to the educational development of the children in the region.
Similarly, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has appealed to IPOB to discontinue its sit-at-home protest.
According to the group, IPOB should explore other means to demonstrate support for its embattled leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Ohanaeze spokesman, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, condemned the killings and attacks which were witnessed on Monday, August 9.
Source: Legit.ng
