Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has pleaded with the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to cancel the week-long sit-at-home order declared in the South-East ahead of November 6 governorship election in Anambra State.
The rights held firmly that the move may lead to shutting down of millions of businesses a situation that may result in massive joblessness and high crime rates in the Igbo speaking South East of Nigeria.
HURIWA asked the IPOB to withdraw the order to stave off the imminent collapse of the South East’s economy.
Also, HURIWA asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to manipulate the governorship election in Anambra.
According to the rights organisation, it is legally obligatory on INEC to deliver transparent elections or lose their credibility.
In a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss. Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA stressed that whereas non-violent civil action such as sit-at home is permissible in a democracy, shutting down an entire economy of a region is not in the commercial, economic, political and strategic interest of Igbo nation.
“It is our considered opinion that the weeklong civil protest will only succeed in multiplying the economic pains of the extremely marginalized Igbo speaking people and emasculate the economic well-being of Igbo nation to a devastating extent that there would be hundreds of thousands of job losses and these economic adversities will pave way for unprecedented rise in organized crime,” the group said.
“We plead with the leaders of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra not to precipitate the eventual commercial suicide of the Igbo nation which is exactly what haters of Igbo nation have always wanted.
“The weeklong sit-at-home will unleash grave consequences that may take the next two decades to recover. We appeal for greater restraint and urge that the order be withdrawn forthwith”.
HURIWA described the one week sit-at-home protest as an agenda designed to cripple the Igbo economy and cannot be said to be an effective tool to lobby for the release of the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (Ipob) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu whose illegal incarceration is unconstitutional and amounts to a crime against humanity.
