The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has declared September 14, 2018 as a day of general strike, mourning and resistance across the South East and neigbouring states.
The group said the decision was reached as a result of what it called “the ongoing campaign of ethnic and religious persecution, genocide and humiliation of the people of Biafra in general.”
In a statement made available to DAILY POST by the Media and Public Secretary of the group, Comrade Emma Powerful, the IPOB claimed that the Igbo people in particular had been victims of humiliation and ethnic persecutions in this regime of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the statement, the persecution of Igbo people culminates in the recent “abominable” incarceration of innocent mothers, grand mothers and great grand mothers in Owerri prisons.
The IPOB added, “We the Indigenous People of Biafra do hereby declare 14 September 2018 a day of general strike, mourning and resistance across Biafraland.
“Inhabitants of South East/South South and all conscientious Biafrans living in other parts of Nigeria and the world are required to stay indoors away from work or daily business activities throughout the day of the 14th of September 2018 to register our anger and protest regarding the men and women killed at Afaraukwu in Umuahia during Operation Python Dance II on September 14 last year, those killed in Ngwa, Aba, Igweocha (Port Harcourt) and buried in unmarked mass graves as a result of unprovoked military invasion of Biafraland by the Nigerian Army.
“We shall also remember all those killed in the struggle for the restoration of Biafra independence since August 2015 when the army shot dead Mr Okafor in Onitsha on a peaceful march from Nkpor to Onitsha main town. Their sacrifice will neither be forgotten nor will it be in vain, because come what may, this generation of IPOB must and will restore Biafra.
“The sacrilegious and disgraceful humiliation of Igbo women, some of them great grand-mothers, ranks as one of the most abominable act of desecration ever visited upon the land of Biafra in recorded history. It will mark the defining event that completed the shame and humiliation of the Igbo race. The cowardice and impotency of Igbo socio-political and cultural leadership in the face of such humiliation by a single Fulani police officer in Owerri is confirmation, if one is needed, that South East and South South regions are conquered territories and vassal colonies of the Sokoto caliphate.
“Nationwide general strike observed as a sit-at-home across Biafraland on the 14th of September 2018, is the only way we Biafrans can honour our fallen brethren and legitimately remind our northern oppressors and their collaborators in our midst that enough is enough! We do not want another Operation Python Dance or another mass murder of Biafra agitators and humiliation of our mothers in our land. Biafraland we state categorically, must emerge a free nation under God, whether our enemies like it or not.
“What happened at Afaraukwu, the desecration of house of a traditional ruler, the slaughter of innocent men and women: the wholesale massacre along the Ngwa segment of Enugu-Igweocha (Port Harcourt) Expresswa, countless number of mass graves across Biafraland, is repulsive, inhumane, barbaric and worthy of total condemnation by all right thinking people. We await the day United Nations and other world bodies will give the issue of Biafra the same level of prominence it is giving Rhohingya.
“All businesses, offices, markets, schools and road transportation will be shut down for 24 hours from midnight of the 13th of September. There will be no human or vehicular movement across Biafraland. People are expected to stay at home to pray for the soul of the brave and reflect upon the bondage our land is under.
“Any person or persons seen outside on the 14th of September 2018 will be classed as an enemy of the people because only collaborators in Ohaneze and South East Governors Forum that instigated Operation Python Dance and encouraged the army to kill unarmed innocent IPOB agitators will dare challenge this directive.
“As well as honouring our heroes that died in Afaraukwu a year ago and other places in Biafraland, 14 September 2018 shall expose who the saboteurs undermining the freedom of Biafra truly are.”
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