Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, has revealed that people in the southeast comply with the sit-at-home order by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) due to fear of being attacked.
Recall that the group had last weekend called off the sit-at-home order, saying that the exercise would henceforth hold only on days its leader, Kanu would appear in court.
Despite the suspension of the exercise, Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi, Nsukka, Aba and other major towns in the South-East states on Monday observed the sit-at-home order.
Umahi, who was furious over the order and its economic impact on the zone, called on security agencies to step up their surveillance.
The governor spoke on Tuesday evening during a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a double-lane flyover, which, the state government said, would be named after the retiring Catholic Bishop of Abakiliki, Most Rev. Michael Okoro.
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The flyover would be constructed at the popular Hausa Quarters Junction along the Afikpo-Abakaliki highway.
“We ask the security chiefs both in the state and in the nation to step up vigilance against the sit-at-home order of the IPOB.
“People are not coming out, not because of obedience, but because of fear, everybody wants to work and do business but it is out of fear.
“We do not know what we are doing to ourselves. I got a text message saying that the only way we can appreciate the killing of three million Igbos is to kill more.
“Another was saying that we will work on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and we should give out Mondays.
“That is very horrible. The southeast people must rise up to say no to this madness,” the governor said.
Umahi expressed worry that the southeast’s economy was being grounded gradually due to crisis, warning that civil servants or contractors that observed the order would be punished.
“Have you ever thought of how we are killing ourselves in the pretence that we are fighting?
“This is very dangerous. I said that any civil servant or contractor who fails to come to work on Monday will fulfil his salary or position.
“We cannot fold our hands in our own time to allow southeast to be destroyed.
“We must ask those who said they are fighting for us if they are truly fighting for us or for themselves.
“Igbo man is not known for killing themselves, but for work. The governors know that those people that are being killed are our brothers and sisters,” he added.