Soludo vows to stop Simon Ekpa’s sit-at-home order

Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, on Wednesday, described the factional leader of a pro-Biafran group, IPOB Auto-Pilot, Simon Ekpa, as a “mad man staying in Finland and dishing out orders for a sit-at-home” in the South-East and vowed to stop the trend in the state.

Soludo who was reacting to another order by the self-acclaimed disciple of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, who had announced a ban on political gatherings in Nigeria’s southeast region, said such an order will not stand in Anambra.

Ekpa, a one-time Radio Biafra Director-General had, on Monday, made an announcement via his YouTube channel where he said all political gatherings have been banned in the South-East due to killings in Eha-Amufu community in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State.

“This is the message. So that you will not say I was not told,” Ekpa said in the video.

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“Biafra people have decided that from tonight (Monday) the 19th day of December, 2022, because of the killings, the annihilation of our tribe and ethnic group going on starting from Eha-Amufu, which is Isi-Uzo Local Government, because of the genocide committed by the Nigerian military, helping the terrorists in Eha Amufu in Isi-Uzo Local Government, from tonight, there will be no any [sic] political gathering of any type, any kind, in Alaigbo.”

But while speaking at the 2022 Public Servants Day held in the state capital, Soludo said the order by Ekpa will not be observed in Anambra.

“A few days ago, one mad man living in Finland said he was declaring sit-at-home, it was only in Anambra that it was not observed. By the time you return next year, we shall stop sit-at-home.

“We must get back to work, working five days in a week, we must take back Anambra from the criminals, we cannot build a prosperous Anambra when we work four days, when our children go to school four days that is a 20 per cent loss in productivity.

“Eight LGAs were totally taken over at the time we came, they said they were unknown gunmen, no, they are known gunmen born of women and from communities,” the governor said.