The proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) on Saturday, began the distribution of flyers and posters across the South-East to notify residents of the cancellation of the sit-at-home exercise in the region.
IPOB’s spokesman, Mr Emma Powerful, disclosed this in a statement entitled: “Monday weekly sit-at-home: An ugly phase of a bygone history that must never be repeated as echoed by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”
Powerful explained that the exercise was aimed at conveying Kanu’s pronouncement to cancel Monday’s sit-at-home.
The group said: “Any person or persons talking about a non-existent sit-at-home in the southeast is an enemy of the people and shall be dealt with accordingly.
“The exercise also aims to inform the people that sit-at-home is not only “dead” but will also never again be invoked or deployed as a tool of civil disobedience in the group’s quest for self-determination,” he added.
According to him, the instructions to distribute the flyers by hand and paste posters to that effect were authorised by the detained IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Powerful’s statement warned that any person or persons talking about sit-at-home in Igbo land again remained an enemy of the people and would be dealt with accordingly.
The statement reads in part: “It is to be stated for the umpteenth time, for those who may feign ignorance of the laws governing the conduct expected of IPOB family worldwide, that our supreme leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has ordered the permanent end to Monday sit-at-home in the southeast.
“Anybody seen enforcing this illegal and non-existent Monday sit-at-home will be apprehended and summarily dealt with on the spot.
“The criminal elements are not working for IPOB or the release of Kanu, who is detained in the DSS solitary confinement in Abuja.
“Those purporting to be running a Biafra Government in Exile, from somewhere in Finland, also known as Autopilot are not IPOB members, and their activities do not represent the views of Kanu, rank and file IPOB membership nor ESN operatives.
“It is a shame to the memory of our late members that gave their lives for the IPOB struggle that individuals that never led ordinary street protests in the southeast or anywhere in the world in support of IPOB can claim to lead our people.
“This is an absolute disgrace,” Powerful stressed.
He said “these shameless parasites” and their sponsors were hoping that mere attachment of the names – Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB, and ESN – to their criminal enterprise will provide legitimacy to continue duping the gullible.
“The social media – Biafra Government in Exile (BGIE) has nothing to do with IPOB and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“Kanu has nothing to do with them and will never have anything to do with them.
“IPOB does not have any government in exile and will never have any government in exile.
“People that never led a protest anywhere in the world, were never detained or held meetings with any international bodies can never claim to represent our people.
“We, therefore, encourage people of the southeast to help in the distribution of the flyers, posters to communities, hinterlands, and cities in the region, signifying the requiem mass for the senseless Monday sit-at-home.
“We warn once again that anybody apprehended enforcing any sit-at-home will regret his life and the self-acclaimed leader of BGIE will not save such a person,” the group noted.
