DATELINE: Enugu, South-East Nigeria, Monday, January 9, 2023. It is the first working day of the week. Usually a busy day, especially for office workers. Normally, the roads would be bustling with vehicular and human traffic as residents went about their businesses. But by noon the roads are largely deserted. Only a few vehicles and tricycles (Keke) passed through the empty streets and major roads in Enugu metropolis.

Shops, schools, offices are closed. Residents are indoors.

Just a few people are out on the streets. Most of those who ventured out of their homes are dressed in sports wears – shorts, tracksuits, sneakers. The empty streets are ideal for jogging, walks and other forms of physical exercise.

It was like an extension of Sunday – a day when most offices, shops and markets remain closed as the predominantly Christian population of the South-East attend church services. But unlike Sundays, which are usually marked by a laid-back, easy feeling, there was tension in the air on this Monday, January 9.

The fitness buffs who were working out on the streets were watchful, ready to run for their lives at the slightest hint of trouble. Petty traders who opened for business, particularly sellers of okpa, a local delicacy, were wary. Those who ventured outside their homes know they are taking a major risk.

It is Monday. Sit-at-home day in the South-East
It was the same scenario in other major cities and towns across the five states of the South-East – Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo. Originally, the sit-at-home exercise was restricted to May 30, a day Biafra activists remember those who died in the Civil War.

Mondays were eventually declared as a day for sit-at-home protest across the South-East after the arrest and detention of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the proscribed pro-Biafra group which is sharing control of the zone with the state governments.

The sit-at-home was also extended to days Kanu appear in court for proceedings in terrorism and treason charges filed against him by the Federal Government. With time, enforcement of the sit-at-home turned it into a bloody affair – residents who venture out of their homes or engage in business or social activities on the day risk losing lives and property.

Although Emma Powerful, IPOB spokesperson, has announced that the sit-at-home had been suspended, the exercise is still in force through orders issued by Simon Ekpa, a Finland-based self described Kanu disciple and ‘IPOB spokesperson’, reputed to be the leader of the ‘IPOB Autopilots’ who appear to have taken charge of the group since Kanu’s arrest.

The ICIR’s reporter, who moved around Enugu to monitor the sit-at-home on January 9, observed that although a few intra-city buses and Keke were available to convey passengers to destinations within the metropolis, there were no vehicles to transport residents to far locations within and outside the state.

At the Holy Ghost area, the major transportation hub in Enugu metropolis, none of the inter-state transport operators opened for business. Some prospective travellers, who hoped to travel outside the state, were frustrated. No vehicle was available to convey them to their destinations. It was the same situation in Abia, Ebonyi, Imo and Anambra. The entire South-East was literally on lockdown.

Dateline: Finland. Monday, January 9, 2023. 11:24 am. In far away Finland, Simon Ekpa posted a video from the ongoing sit-at-home in southeastern Nigeria on Twitter via his handle @simon_ekpa.

The video, posted under the caption ‘Those preparing to force Biafrans into validating a terrorist state in February 2023, this is what await you’, showed empty shops and stalls at one of the major markets in the South-East. The video appeared to have been shot that same day and was posted to illustrate the ‘success’ of the January 9 sit-at-home exercise. A voice which ran a commentary in the video described the day’s sit-at-home as “very tight, very solid, and awesome”.

‘No election in South-East’
There will be no election in the South-East, the voice in the video stressed, warning residents of the region not to come out during the election period, to avoid being killed by the “military”. The killings in the South-East have been blamed on ‘unknown gunmen’, who the security agencies say are members of IPOB and its military wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN). But the voice in the video claimed that the security agencies of the Nigerian government are behind the killings.

The voice in the video said: “Let everyone be notified, as you have been notified before, let no one come out. There’s no election in Biafraland (South-East). Don’t come out and don’t be killed by the military. Because if you come out they will kill you too. So don’t come out. There’s no election in Biafraland. Thank you for sitting at home.”

In an earlier Twitter post at 10:36 am, on the same day, Ekpa posted images of empty shops and streets, under the caption: ‘Monday sit at home update for Biafra liberation & release of MNK (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu) today, 9th of January 2023. Biafraland remain under lockdown.”

However, although Ekpa is insisting that there will be no election in the South-East, official IPOB spokesperson Emma Powerful has distanced the group from the directive.

IPOB has nothing against election – Spokesperson
In an interview with The ICIR, Powerful said: “IPOB has nothing against the Nigerian election and we have made it clear in our previous press releases that we are not interested on Nigeria’s selection process. And we are not not declaring sit- at- home.” He added that anybody who says IPOB don’t want election in the South-East “is an enemy of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the Biafra struggle”.

The Nigerian government has continued to blame IPOB for the killings and other forms of violence in the South-East, including attacks on facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). But Powerful said the government is sponsoring the insecurity in the region just to frame the group as a terrorist organisation. The Federal Government designated IPOB as a terrorist organisation after a court proscribed the group on September 21, 2017.

“Those trying to create confusion during the forthcoming elections in Nigeria are criminals and cultists recruited by the same Nigerian government to implicate IPOB and ESN. If we had wanted to stop elections we would have done that during the time of PVC registration but we didn’t do that. We never called for boycott because our strategy is to boycott election, not to stop election,” Powerful added, stressing that the group is a liberation movement that would not stop a democratic process.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/ballot-or-bullet-inside-south-east-nigeria-ahead-of-2023-election/

say no to Sit at home but, no election on presidential election day in the east 100% no problems

yarimo:
say no to Sit at home but, no election on presidential election day in the east 100% no problems

Since the inception of democracy, have you ever seen Nigerians being agitated like this about who becomes the president ?..

You will receive the stock of your life next month..

No let me tell you.... with the projections / polls done so far, do you know that Peter Obi will still win if no single person votes for him in entire SE ?..
You can go and study that for confirmation!!

Now Obi is on ballot, expect an unprecedented turn out you never imagined in your life ..

The two days sit at home that was declared recently were rejected and people still travelled thousands of kilometers for their business, is it presidential election that will take place on Saturday where people's polling units are very close to their different houses that they won't go out and vote ?

Like I said, u will be very surprised next month!!

When I say igbos are dull at national politics, some will argue.

they have very small population; with the violence, threats of sit-at-home, maiming, they've already diluted their dot votes but... but... with so little electoral strength, the delusional northerners (the same people they called animals) will gift them bloc votes to send PO to Aso Villa

it's super easy for any candidate or party that won't benefit from the SE votes to spread hardcore violence on election day to ensure very few of them make it to the voting center. they will just pin it on ipob/esn

South East will come out in mass to vote this particular election go and mark my word but if peter obi lose it will be the end of one Nigeria for south east as the will never vote again