In recent times, the South East region of the country has witnessed an unprecedented spate of killings and destruction of property with security agencies as the main targets. These killings and destruction were generally believed to have been carried out by unknown gunmen. Predictably, security agencies responded by heavy clampdown on the states in the South East with mass arrests of residents especially the youths.
Activities of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, who are agitating for a separate nation did not help matters as the group has turned itself into a more or less an alternative government, issuing directives that must be obeyed by the residents. The pro-Biafra group would order the residents to stay at home either in commemoration of Biafra day or in solidarity with their leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who is facing trial for alleged treason. Anyone who dared disobey such orders would be dealt with by IPOB members without any protection from the government.
Unfortunately for Ndigbo, they are the ones bearing the brunt of IPOB action. The people they claim to be fighting for are the ones suffering from their actions. The latest order by the pro-Biafra group asking the residents to sit-at-home which was the second in one week was to protest President Muhammadu Buhari’s one day visit to Imo state on Thursday.
Some banks, out of fear of being attacked by IPOB members if they opened for business decided to shut their banking halls while other residents who heeded government assurance of safety if they came out had sad tales to tell as IPOB members visited destruction on them with the government providing no security for them. Stakeholders in the region have wondered if IPOB’s menace in the east was not generally due to poor leadership in Igbo land for which the governors were most liable. They asked whether the governors in the region have ever stopped IPOB from enforcing their orders some of which they have done by violence
