- Halimah Olamide
No fewer than three men of the Nigerian Army were killed on Thursday during the enforcement of the sit-at-home orders by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
IPOB is a proscribed organisation known for its violence on the people of the South-Eastern states of Nigeria. The organisation had declared another sit-at-home according to it, to honour those who had died in the course of the struggle for the actualisation of a Biafra nation. The order had paralysed commercial activities were grounded in most parts of Anambra, Ebonyi, Abia, Enugu and Imo states.
Markets were deserted while many other financial institution shut their offices. Some of the militant were said to have run into the soldiers. Ohanaeze condemn killing, calls for political solution to Kanu’s detention
Meanwhile, the President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, yesterday condemned the killing of three soldiers during the sit-at-home directive and also called for a political solution to the detention of Nnamdi Kanu.
Speaking while answering questions from newsmen shortly after a three-hour meeting with Kanu, who is currently in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), Iwuanyanwu said the senseless killing of security operatives by a gang of “criminals” does not enjoy the support of all right-thinking Igbos, the leadership of Ohanaeze as well as Nnamdi Kanu, whom he referred to as “my son.”
According to him, the detained IPOB leader who condemned the killings also condemned the sit-at-home directive given by some persons in the South-East.
Iwuanyawu said: “The truth about it is, I discussed it with Nnamdi Kanu, he is very sad about it. He said it sometimes last year, he said to me today that he is not part of this sit-at-home thing. Two things that have made Igbos develop are education and business enterprise. There is no Igbo family that you don’t find these two things. I think this is a political thing, I urge the President to use his political power to release him.”