“Every September, military equipment is being moved menacingly into Igboland just to remind us that we are a conquered people. Next, they will say some students threw stones at them and mayhem will be unleashed on our people.”
The Indigenous People of Biafra’s (IPOB’s) September 14, 2018, sit-at-home order received a boost yesterday as 12 Igbo groups met in Enugu and endorsed the move.
The meeting, held at the residence of Deputy Leader of Eastern Consultative Assembly (ECA), Chief Maria Okwor, was attended by traditional rulers, trade associations, youth groups and student organisations.
Okwor, who convened the meeting, said the decision to support the sit-at-home order followed the humiliation meted out to Igbo women recently during a peaceful demonstration in Owerri against the way democracy was being run in the country.
The ECA deputy leader, who stated that it was sad that the women were locked in prison after their arrest, condemned the continued ill-treatment of Ndigbo as a “conquered people.”
She, therefore, called on Ndigbo to sit at home on September 14, 2018, to express their frustration with Nigeria, adding that Nigeria should be returned to the 1963 Constitution for it to survive.
Also, Secretary of ECA and founder of IYM, Evangelist Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko, described the constant invasion of Igboland with military hardware every September as provocative and insulting.
He said: “Every September, military equipments are being moved menacingly into Igboland just to remind us that we are a conquered people. Next, they will say some students threw stones at them and mayhem will be unleashed on our people.
There’s no war going on here, there are no killings going on here. Igboland is peaceful, why the invasion? The soldiers should be drafted to Sambisa Forest in Borno State where killings are going on every day.
They should go to Plateau and Benue states and save hapless citizens who are being slaughtered daily, while the government is either blaming Libyans or telling Middle Beltans to surrender their land to the herdsmen to save their lives.”
Bringing so-called Python Dance 3 to our peaceful region now is only designed to deliberately provoke a confrontation that will lead to loss of lives as they did last year”.
Ugochukwu-Uko announced that the emergency meeting, therefore, asked all Ndigbo who are aggrieved over the endless provocative and humiliating invasion to stay indoors on Friday, September 14, 2018, to send a message to the world that they are angry.
The meeting also resolved to send a message to the United Nations (UN) that Nigeria would die if the structure was not returned to the 1963 Constitution, adding that it would organise a street march in October to drive home their demand for a new constitution.
