RESIDENTS of the entire South-East and South-South regions were in jubilant mood on Saturday when the highest decision-making body of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) announced the suspension of the every Monday sit-at-home order that has continued to ground economic activities in the regions.
The Head of the Directorate of State for the pro-Biafra group, Chika Edoziem, had on Friday in a radio programme announced the suspension of the sit-at-home order in the region, which the group had given in an attempt to force the federal government to release its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who has been in detention since June, 2021.
Some of the residents of the regions, who spoke to Sunday Tribune on Saturday, said the announcement relieved them of the depression that the economic doom that greeted the sit-at-home order had caused them.
Reacting to the IPOB directives, a trader at Upper- Iweka Onitsha, who gave her name as Sister Edith, said the suspension was an intervention from God and not man. She said that the one-day sit-st-home action has been affecting a lot of business activities in the region without any benefit whatsoever.
“I prayed to God not to allow them to declare the action again. We are Igbo; the only occupation at our disposal is buying and selling, and any day we did not go out to trade or transact business, there will be no food for the family.
“I can tell you authoritatively that day, (Monday 9, 2021), a lot of businessmen/women across the South East region, lost millions of naira.
“I want political leaders in Nigeria to restructure the country; by so doing, the agitation for separation will come to an end in earnest,” Edith advised.
She also advised IPOB leadership to always consider the common people while taking their actions.
Mr Donatus Etuk, who trades in local rice at EkeAwka, on his part, said the suspension was for the good of the Igbo, because the order “has no negative impact on other regions of the country including the Federal Capital Teritary, Abuja.
“The suspension is a better way to think than asking people, especially, the carpenters, barrow pushers, Okada riders, commercial drivers, traders and KekeNapep operators to stay at home without any benefits.
“I think the group is beginning to think normal now. It is a welcome development,” Etuk submitted.
According to him, “Now, with this development, students in the region will be free to sit for WAEC exams that will commence on Monday, August 16, 2021,” adding that “the governors in the zone should also talk to them to minimise their actions so that it will not affect the Igbo chances of 2023 Presidency.”
Hon. UzomaIcheku, a businessman told Sunday Tribune on Saturday that the people, for whom the order is meant, the Igbo, are really suffering. He said that the best way would have been for the Igbo to march on the street one day in demonstration, after which, they would go back to their normal businesses.
Another resident, Canic Nwosu, said that he is in full support of the suspension of the order because its continuation would have gone a long way in frustrating their business and day-to-day activities. He, however, said that the order if allowed to go on, would have offered him an opportunity to relax at home.
Nwosu said that the suspension would offer people the opportunity to go about their normal business.
A civil servant in the state, Mr Sunny UcheCyriacus, said that the suspension is a welcome idea, as it would offer workers free movement to their working places rather than wasting the day on sit-at-home.
Mr Victor Osuji, a media guru, said he did not like the sit-at-home order because it amounted to IPOB forcing the order on the people against their wishes.
He said that asking somebody to sit at home when the person should be earning a living is uncalled for, especially in Igbo land.
A phone seller in Owerri, Obi Chinedu, on his part, said that he had not been happy with the order since inception because it would make him lose a lot of money in his business.
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