₦airaland Forum

Police Disperse Sit-At-Home Enforcers, Avert Alleged Bank Robbery Attempt By IPOB In Anambra

The police in Anambra State, southeast Nigeria have said they dispersed some people trying to enforce a compulsory sit-at-home exercise on Tuesday afternoon.

The police accused the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militant wing, Eastern Security Network (ESN) of being behind the “illegal sit-at-home”, saying they also averted an attack on a bank and other security forces.

A statement issued on Wednesday morning by the spokesman for the state police command, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu, said, “Following the improved Operational and strategic positioning of both human and viable assets of the command by the Commissioner of Police CP Echeng Echeng, the joint security forces comprising of the Police and Military by 12:30 pm on 9/5/2023 dispersed illegal sit-at-home enforcers from the proscribed Indigenous group of Biafra IPOB and Eastern security Network ESN in Nkwo market, Ihiala.

“The outlawed group members armed with guns and other dangerous weapons came out in their numbers on a motorbike and started shooting sporadically, in an attempt to rob a bank and to disrupt commercial activities and vehicular movement going on in Ihaila.

“The joint operatives responded swiftly which made the armed men abandon their evil plan and took to their heels. Unfortunately, due to the indiscriminate shootings by the armed group, a stray bullet hit the chief security officer CSO of the bank on the leg and he has been taken to the hospital where he is currently receiving treatment. No life was lost.

“Meanwhile, calm has returned in the area as Police with other security forces have intensified patrols, and improved security dominance and surveillance in the state.

“In the event of any request for security service, members of the public are advised to call the following phone numbers: the Command Control Room Number at 07039194332 or the Public Relations Officer PRO at 08039334002. The 'npf rescue me app' is also available for free download on both Android and Apple IOS, for Android and iPhone users respectively.”

Meanwhile, SaharaReporters earlier reported that IPOB had declared May 30, 2023, as a day for compulsory sit-at-home for the Biafra Remembrance Day celebration.

The separatist group said every ‘Biafran’ (someone who hails from Southeast Nigeria) must honour those who died in the civil war and Biafra Nation actualisation struggle.

IPOB on Monday in a statement issued by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, asked industries, companies, transport companies (air, land and sea), hotels, schools and churches across the Southeast region of Nigeria to shut down in adherence to the order.

The secessionist group further asked people of the Southeast living in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria to join the sit-at-home order, warning all the residents of ‘Biafra territory’ not to endanger their lives or their businesses by disobeying the sit-at-home order as the directive is from IPOB leadership.

Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of frustrating plans to remove fuel subsidy.

Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi also said the retention of fuel subsidy as “stupid” and capable of bankrupting the country.

El-Rufai and Sanusi spoke during a policy conversation and book presentation by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Agora Policy in Abuja.

The Governor alleged Buhari had agreed that fuel subsidy spending by the government made no sense but refused to halt it.

Responding to a question about fuel subsidy, El-Rufai said: “Between September and November 2021, the National Economic Council gave us an assignment to work out what to do if we withdraw subsidy, how much will be raised, etc. We worked with experts and the World Bank.

“We came out with a report on what to do with the resources, which will be transparently explained to Nigerians. Components of it include investment in security, social protection, etc. The report is there.”

The committee, he said, developed a framework on what to do with what would be saved once subsidy was halted and how to release more money for education, health, infrastructure, etc.

El Rufai said Governors saw danger ahead in 2021 with the retention of fuel subsidy. Worried by the development, El Rufai claimed he approached Buhari and asked: “Does it make sense to you for us to spend N200billion on all federal roads in Nigeria in one year and six times that on cheap petrol?

“He (President) said it doesn’t make sense. So why are we doing it? This is something we’ve been studying for many years, we have a framework and the economic council agreed, all the 36 governors of Nigeria agreed that it should be withdrawn and we had a clear plan on where the money would go.

“Some of it will go to the Federal Government, some to states, Local Governments, and to interventions. We all agreed. The President said, no! That’s it.”

Sanusi called on the incoming government to stop the subsidy regime. According to him, in 2011 “we tried to explain that it’s bad economics; for every $1billion Nigeria spends on fuel subsidy, it is $1billion out of education, $1billion out of healthcare, $1billion out of power, $1billion out of infrastructure.

For those arguing for fuel subsidy, Sanusi said: “What you are saying is that for the poor people in this nation, cheap fuel is more important than education, more important than healthcare, more important than power, etc. If you do that for 30, 40 years, what kind of country are you going to have? Which is what we have had.”