President Muhammadu Buhari will be visiting Imo September 9 to commission projects, and, very certainly, to do something else.
Imo has assumed the headquarters of IPOB and Biafra agitation as most of the killings and attacks the group carries out originate from Orlu in Imo.
Buhari’s visit may as well test the waters, and feel how much of resistance IPOB and other rag-tag secessionist groups can muster against the presence of a sitting commander-in-chief of Nigeria’s armed forces visiting the region.
Already, IPOB has declared the president of Nigeria is not welcome in Biafra.
IPOB Director of Socials, Chika Edoziem, made the made declaration as he ordered a sit-at-home in protest of Buhari’s visit to Imo State on Thursday.
Edoziem, who is one of IPOB executives, disclosed this during a broadcast on Monday evening.
“Nigeria’s president is not welcome in Imo State, Biafra Land on Thursday, September 9, 2021.
“All the traditional rulers, all ndi iche and every Biafran should stay away from any ceremony organised by Hope Uzodimma to welcome him.”
The group has a violent way of enforcing its sit-at-home order. The last two it enforced across the southeast, at least a dozen people were killed by the group and the federal security agents in clashes across the region.
Citizens now dread coming out in defiance of IPOB’s Monday sit-at-home order, suspended though.
But Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State has said Buhari is coming to visit the state, and would commission “significant projects” while there.