Residents of the south-east must reject the five-day sit-in declared by Simon Ekpa, a Finland-based protégé of detained Biafra Indigenous Peoples leader Nnamdi Kanu, the Igbo Elders Consultative Forum led by a former Anambra State governor, has said Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife.
The pan-Igbo socio-political organization also described the order as draconian and epitomizing insensitivity to the plight of the people.
Ezeife told reporters in Abuja on Thursday night that it should never be observed or left standing.
According to him, the IECF met, discussed and critically analyzed some national issues and questions that had far-reaching consequences on the peace, unity, stability and corporate existence of Nigeria in general, and Igbo land in particular. , including the Elpa sit-in: home order in the southeast.
He said: “The Igbo Elders Consultative Forum has always believed that some faceless people in the government and other unpatriotic elements who do not wish the best for Ndigbo, and have been working hard with collaborators to truncate the general election scheduled for 2023 in the southeast are behind. the alleged stay-at-home order in the area.
“The presidential elections scheduled for February 2023 will be historic in Nigeria because we are optimistic that patriotic and progressive Nigerians will elect Labor’s Peter Obi as the next president of this country in a free, fair and credible election. Therefore, the elements should never be allowed to use the so-called sit-at-home order to trump next year’s general election.”
The Igbo elders also called on the Independent Electoral Commission to take the necessary steps to provide a level playing field for all political parties and their candidates, as well as to conduct free, fair and credible elections in 2023.
“The people of the Southeast, both at home and in the diaspora, must collect their Permanent Elector Credentials and ensure effective participation in next year’s electoral process,” the IECF said.
The forum’s secretary, Professor Charles Nwekeaku, said the Igbo elders strongly believed that Kanu’s release was critical to peace process initiatives in the south-east, as well as to the realization of a free, fair and credible process. election in the area next year.
He said: “The moment Kanu is released; no one will hide behind IPOB and similar organizations to impose a draconian sit-at-home order on our people. We still call on the Federal Government to obey the laudable unanimous ruling of the Court of Appeal and release our son, Nnamdi Kanu. The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous and historic ruling, acquitted Kanu of the remaining seven of the original 15 terrorism charges against him.
“Judge Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court, FCT, Abuja earlier quashed 8 out of 15 original charges against Mr. Kanu. The honorable thing for the federal government to do now is to release Kanu and stop this broad goose appeal in the Supreme Court.”
The Ezeigbo of Abuja, His Royal Highness Igwe Ibe Nwosu, said that now that the IPOB has publicly condemned and distanced its members from the order to sit at Ekpa’s house, the governors of the states, as the main security officers of the various southeastern states, you must rise up. to its responsibility to ensure the effective protection of life and property of citizens, as well as the free movement of people and goods in the area.
“Governors should empower and support vigilante groups in the state to help maintain homeland security in the Southeast. We also call on traditional rulers, community and municipal union leaders, clergy, youth organizations and other peace-loving institutions and individuals to take up the challenge of ensuring not only the free movement of people, goods and services in the southeast, but also the immediate release of this draconian stay-at-home order permanently into the dustbin of history. The sit-at-home order should never be allowed to return to the Southeast,” he said.