There is TENSION in the five states of the South-East zone of the country as the sit-at-home order issued by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB), a self-dermination group, takes effect today.
IPoB, led by Nnamdi Kanu, had issued the no-movement directive to mark what it termed the Biafra Day, a reference to May 30, 1967, the day the General Yakubu Gowon-led Federal Government declared a full-blown war with the then Eastern Regional Government headed by the late Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, for declaring the section of the country an independent nation to be known as the Republic of Biafra. Already, various state governments in the region have reacted to the directive by IPoB, with warnings to trouble-makers to stay off the zone.
Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, for instance, had, in a statewide broadcast on Saturday threatened to seize any shop which owner refused to open today, in deference to the IPoB order, just as he ordered security agents to shoot at sight anyone trying to attack security personnel.
In Imo State, some 48 hours to the D-Day, commercial and social activities were paralysed on Saturday, as security personnel began to shoot indiscriminately as a show of strength, to warn IPoB members of the readiness of the government to protect the citizens.
IPoB had, however, insisted that though it shifted the day from May 30, being a Sunday, to allow Christians to worship in their churches, the Monday date for the sit-at-home order remains sacrosanct.
Today, 31st My 2021, the IPOB sit at home order took effect as every part of south east is deserted, markets, shops, offices, transport services was shutdown.
