THE robust pushback by the newly inaugurated Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, against the illegal Monday ‘sit-at-home’ order decreed and violently enforced by the Indigenous People of Biafra in the South-East is a welcome move that should be vigorously backd by the four other states in the region. In announcing a ban on the daytime curfew imposed on Mondays for two traumatic years now, Mbah reminded residents that its removal would fast-track the democratic deliverables he promised them during his campaign. More important is restoring peace, law, and order.
The IPOB tyranny enforced by murder and pillage has gone on for too long; the zone’s state governors and all other stakeholders should urgently cooperate, mobilise the entire citizenry and restore peace, and the region’s commercial and social momentum.
Protesting the continued incarceration and trial of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, on treason charges in Abuja, IPOB and its guerrilla wing, the Eastern Security Network, in August 2021 declared a sit-at-home daylight curfew every Monday throughout the region and has since been enforcing it via a campaign of terror that has killed many, and crippled businesses in a region whose people are noted for their commercial fervour.
Mbah emphasised this in launching the pushback. He said, “Our DNA is wired with commercial and entrepreneurial prowess. If this is what we are known for, then it becomes inconsistent with the reality that the spirit of entrepreneurship, commerce, and creativity is killed every Monday in our land. Our restless spirit of industry abhors laxity and indolence.” He is spot on.
The federal security agencies should swiftly partner the governor to stop the IPOB/ESN oppression. Similarly, the people should overcome their fear of terrorists, form local vigilance bodies, and cooperate with the state and law enforcement agencies to defend their lives, property, and land.
Mbah spoke the minds of many South-Easterners in seeking freedom from the IPOB siege. He said, “For us to transit from a public service economy to a private sector-driven one, we must free our markets from the shackles of restriction to commerce. If indeed we aspire to, and anticipate an influx of private sector practitioners and investors in Enugu State, we must know that this will not happen where the perception of us is that of unproductive people. Therefore, those who strike on Mondays, putting restrictions in the way of our Igbo spirit of creativity, cannot be our true representatives. In fact, they kill our spirit.”
Other governors should, this time, join the fight. Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State had similarly mounted a spirited defence against the IPOB terror in 2022 but did not receive support from other governors in the region.
The Federal Government said that IPOB attacked 164 police formations, killed 175 security operatives, including 128 police officers in Imo State. The ESN attacked and released 1,841 inmates from the Nigerian Correctional Service in Owerri in 2021, killed an Immigration officer in Abia, and many civilians, including Chike Akunyili, husband of the ex-Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration, Dora Akunyili, in 2021.
The Nigerian Army said ESN murdered two soldiers, Audu Linus (a Master Warrant Officer), and Gloria Matthew (a Private), in Imo on their way to their traditional marriage in 2022. Recently, suspected ESN members killed three personnel of a US humanitarian agency and four mobile police escorts in the Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State.
Also, the Nnewi Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture said Anambra lost N8 billion on August 9, 2021, alone. A 2021 report by SBM Intelligence estimated that the entire South-East region lost N4 trillion between 2020 and 2022, while the International Centre for Investigative Reporting said micro-businesses lost N5.4 trillion there in 71 Mondays by January 2023.
The terror campaign has caused untold hardship, entrenched poverty in the region, and impeded domestic and Foreign Direct Investment. Markets have suffered losses and profit shortfalls as economic activities have been diverted to other states. Election officials have also felt the wrath of the terrorists. Gunmen allegedly killed an Independent National Electoral Commission official in Imo State during the voter registration process in 2022, while a police officer was killed when gunmen attacked the commission’s premises in Owerri.
Mbah should engage traditional and community leaders in the establishment of a well-funded, formidable, non-partisan state security agency. He should reactivate, fund, equip and arm the state’s component of Ebubeagu, the South-East regional security outfit.
Proscribed by a Federal High Court in 2017 and named the 10th deadliest terror group of 2022 by the Global Terrorism Index, IPOB was linked to 57 deaths, 40 attacks, and 16 injuries in 2022. Community leaders should find their voice and courage and mobilise their people for self-defence. Governors must revive, generously fund, and strengthen Ebubeagu. They should stop using it to harass their political rivals or settle personal scores.
Only the federal and state governments have the authority to impose curfews. Therefore, governors must assert their constitutional role as chief security officers of their states. They should forge close collaboration with the police and other federal security operatives to neutralise non-state actors usurping their powers.
The police and military troops in the area should change their tactics, desist from unlawful arrest, excessive force, and extrajudicial killings, and strive to win hearts and minds. Amnesty International tracked 115 extrajudicial killings in the South-East between March and June 2021.
President Bola Tinubu should restore national cohesion after the eight years of exclusionary policies by the preceding Muhammadu Buhari administration. Many South-Easterners harbour a deep sense of alienation and this hinders the efforts of federal security agencies to bring about peace in the region. Tinubu should address the genuine concerns of residents. He should strictly uphold the rule of law by obeying all court orders relating to Kanu and every other Nigerian.
Urgently, the sit-at-home impudence must be brought to an end by an iron determination by the state governors, and by deploying all lawful means at the disposal of the federal and state governments.
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