On Friday, May 30, five soldiers were killed in brutal fashion at a checkpoint at a military checkpoint in Aba, Abia State. The killers were believed to be pro-Biafra activists enforcing the sit at home order they had declared.
Following the attack the leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, through their lawyer, Bar Ifeanyi Ejiofor, denied complicity in the gruesome killing and described it as a desecration of ‘Our holy land on a holy day of Biafrans’.
He attributed the killing to those he described as criminal elements who aimed to spoil the name of IPOB. His words were echoed by the spokesman of IPOB, Mr Emma Powerful, who accused enemies of the Igbo Nation of orchestrating such attacks to achieve their hidden agenda and called on security agencies to fish out the killers.
Now, such explanations after such attacks are not new. In fact, the belief in some quarters has always been that some people who are bent on destabilizing Igbo Land carry out such attacks and make it look like the handwork of Pro-Biafra Agitators.
This is not what we can pointedly express an opinion on, as it is best left to security agents and the various governments of the South East. But then, we have observed that such killings usually occur on days designated as sit at home by Pro-Biafra Agitators who usually command people to stay at home, often accompanied by threats. Based on previous experience where people had been attacked and killed and their shops looted and goods destroyed, many people have now come to comply with such directives out of fear.
The question then arises, why such directives should be given in the first place when they are trailed by bloodbaths. Granted that miscreants have taken over the activities of such groups, it can be argued successfully that these groups brought it upon themselves by embarking on their brand of agitation. Why, for example, would anyone declare sit at home and force compliance while knowing the ugly consequences? Why not refrain totally from ordering it?
But what we have is a situation where some people keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. That is what we keep seeing from these agitators. Coming out to allude to outsiders killing our people after they were the very ones that set the stage for that, does not make any sense.
Also a situation where we create mayhem and turn round to cry that soldiers have besieged our land is as laughable, as it is preposterous. He who creates an anarchic situation should not shy away from the consequences. Igbo People should be a lot more smarter than they are now.
We therefore call for a stop to any form of sit at home call. We know how to mourn our dead and mourning the dead should never be compulsory. The bloodbath in Igbo Land was triggered by these sit at home declarations and the sooner they are stopped, the better for everyone.
