The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has warned police chiefs in Igboland not to interfere with Wednesday’s proposed sit-at-home protest, saying that the authorities have no right to determine how the Igbo choose to honour their fallen hero.
IPOB was apparently reacting to a press release by the Anambra State Police Commissioner, Mr Umar Garba, in which he called on residents of Anambra state to disregard the sit-at-home order, stressing that IPOB was outlawed and has no powers to order the action.
The group, in a statement by its media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, observed that police commissioners in all the states that make up “Biafra” were mostly from the north and had no powers to determine how the Igbo celebrate their departed brothers.
He said, “All Fulani police commissioners that litter Biafraland must desist from commenting about this solemn occasion. Some of them have offered comments that we deem insulting to the memory of the dead.
“We don’t have a say about how they honour their victims of Boko Haram violence in core North and those killed by their fellow Fulani terrorists. We have chosen sit-at-home as the best way to say thank you to all our brave soldiers for what they did for us between 1967-70.
“It will be crass insensitivity of the highest order for any Fulani police or army officer in the East to intrude upon our grief.”
The group insisted that the South-east and South-south, including other states marked out for the exercise, would be locked down on Wednesday, May 30th, and that nothing can stop it.
They urged every family, kindred, village, clan, town across the length and breadth of Eastern region, Mid-West and Middle Belt to remain indoors from 6pm on Tuesday the 29th to 6pm on the 30th of May.
The statement said it was expected that local and international observers would be on ground to monitor compliance and interview people of the region.
It read partly, “All over the world in over 100 countries and territories, IPOB family meetings will gather to rally and offer prayers in memory of our heroes that sacrificed their lives that we may live.
“We owe our Biafran soldiers that fell in battle an eternal debt of gratitude which our annual sit-at-home is only but a minor but significant contribution this generation can make in acknowledgement and honour of their supreme sacrifice.”
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