From Maurice Okafor,Enugu.
A coalition of pressure groups and other acitivists in the South East zone,clamouring for an independent state of Biafra has condemned the continued sit -at home every Monday, in several parts of Igbo land, stating the strategy is undermining the economy of the region.
Leaders of some of these group who spoke to news men in Enugu on Sunday,July 30,said their condemnation of the scourge is also the stand of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB),whom they said has condemned and called for a stoppage of the scourge through his lawyer,Barrister Aloy Ejiofor.
Some of the leaders of Pro-Biafra pressure groups who briefed news men in Enugu were Comrade Rita Eberechukwu Anigbogu popularly known as Ada Biafra. She is the Director General,DE Biafra Mobilizers Initiative and also the deputy chairnan,De facto Customary Government of Biafra.
Others are Mazi Ibezim Ugwoke,the MASSOB(Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra),Enugu state chapter, Mazi Okechukwu Nwaeze,the Enugu state IPOB Coordinator,Mazi Ikechukeu Oji,the founding Secretary General,Eastern Peoples Congress, among others.
The Pro-Biafra activitists dissociated themselves from the call for continuing sit at home on Mondays across the South East zone by Finland based Simon Ekpa.
They said Simon Ekpa is not in tune with realities on the ground and lamented that civil disobediences as a strategy in the quest for an Independent state of Biafra has brought so.much economic misfortune to the Igbo race. Therefore the reason to seek a.political solution in the struggle.
Their press statement read in parts,
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has seen that Sit-at home will do us terrible harm and that is why he is demanding for a total end to it. It beats my imagination that anyone with Biafra bloiod running in his veins would contemplate a continuation of the Monday sit -at home and worse still askng a region to sit at home for two full weeks. Who is that person?”.
Lamenting the ugly and negative implications of the sit at home on the economy of the South East zone,the group stated further,
“The political leaders,even the governors with the best intention cannot do anything.Our GDP will continue to be decimated if we continue to throw away our Mondays to sit at home. You can imagine a group of people that their Mondays.What about our brothers and sisters who are business people?”.
The pro- Biafra activisits condembation and call for the stoppage of the Monday sit at home in the South East zone, is coming on the heels of the National Assembly(Senate) task on the South East governors to exercise their executive powers in quenching the scourge which equally poses a threat to the constitution and government of Nigeria.
Public analysts hold the view that Simon Ekpa’s claim and boasts of having formed a Biafran leadership in exile,based upon which some brainwashed citizens in Nigeria especially in the South East zone of the country,deliberated concur to the sit at home menace every monday at the expense of embarking on their legitimate businesses, portrays as if there is a parallel government in the South East zone of the country.
To that extent they tasked the South East governors to do everything constitutionally possible to halt the Monday sit at home in the zone.
