Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has issued an earnest appeal to President Bola Tinubu for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). This plea was made public on Thursday following Governor Mbah’s inaugural meeting with various state security agency heads at the Government House in Enugu.
Simultaneously, the governor announced a decisive end to the notorious sit-at-home order, primarily enforced by a faction of IPOB across the South-east region.
Governor Mbah urged the newly inaugurated president, stating, “I call on our newly sworn-in president, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to consciously work towards the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. We believe that his release will expedite the healing process Nigeria needs at this time. It will also be a pointer to his administration’s extension of brotherly hands of fellowship to Ndigbo.”
Since August 2021, IPOB enforced a sit-at-home order each Monday across the South-east in a bid to pressure the Nigerian government into releasing their detained leader, Mr Kanu, currently on trial for alleged terrorism at the Federal High Court in Abuja. The order was later relaxed, limiting it to the days Mr Kanu appeared in court. However, fear has driven the residents of South-east states — Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, and Anambra — to continue observing the Monday sit-at-home rule.
Addressing the divisive sit-at-home order, Mr Mbah voiced his administration’s intention to resist its continuation from 6 June, highlighting the harm it inflicts on the “spirit of entrepreneurship, commerce, and creativity” of Igbo people in the state and the region. “The idea behind sitting at home on Monday, the first working and business day of the week, is abominable and antithetical to greatness and the spirit of industry we profess to have inherited from our forebears. This cannot be us. Tufiakwa (God forbid). It does colossal damage to us,” Governor Mbah stated.
The governor further underscored the need to liberate the state’s markets from the “shackles of restriction to commerce” to stimulate the “influx of private sector practitioners and investors” in the state. He stated, “Therefore, those that strike on Mondays, putting restrictions in the way of our Igbo spirit of creativity, cannot be our true representatives. To this end, therefore, from Monday, June 6, 2023, there will be no observance of any sit-at-home in all nooks and crannies of Enugu State.”
The governor assured the enforcement of the decision with the full extent of governmental power at its disposal, urging all Enugu residents to reclaim their “sense of industry, pride of place and re-enact our glorious past.” He emphasized, “By heeding this call, you would have set us on the path of actualizing our mandate.”
