IPOB Sit-At Home Has Jeopardize South East Economy, Says Senator Abaribe

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Sunday, February 6th, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Minority Leader of the Nigerian Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe of the people’s Democratic party PDP, has expressed concern over insecurity challenges and the continued Monday sit- at home being order by the proscribed Indigenous people of Biafra IPOB in South East Nigeria, saying the development has destroyed the economy of the region.

The former Abia state Deputy governor, stated this in Enugu Saturday while Speaking during the investiture ceremony of Barr. Jasper Nduagwuike as the 16th President of the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture. ECCIMA.

The federal lawmaker stressed on the need to make Southeast zone more attractive to businesses and investment, describing the current situation in the region as tragic.

He added that giving into Mondays’sit-at-home could succeed in destroying the economy of the region.

“What we need in the southeast is to turn the zone to a place that attracts people not the place that people are running away from.

According to him, “We cannot grow as a region if we don’t work 24 hours daily to uplift our standard of living.

He said that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, currently in DSS custody over alleged case of treason, told them when they visited him in detention that he neither ordered nor knew about the Monday sit-at-home which has continued to be observed in the Southeast.

“It is unfortunate that businesses were now relocating to other regions as a result of insecurity in the region.

“What is happening in Southeast is a tragedy, every Monday people sit at home in what they call ‘Holy Monday’. What is holy in making people suffer like this he asked?

“IPOB has said countless times that they are not the ones enforcing the order, We don’t know who is enforcing it neither does it seem like we have a way to solve it.

“I went with Senator Ike Ekweremadu and two Bishops to the DSS to see Nnamdi Kanu and he told us “I have never said people should sit at home.

“I told him that nobody believes you outside, because people have said they don’t like it but they keep sitting at home.

“There is no way we are going to survive like this. You are sitting at home and the people who you are doing these things for are in Lagos and in Abuja and everywhere and they don’t care. And you are here killing your own.

“Aba is known for bringing and opening containers of imported goods on Mondays. So, the problem we’re having today is that because of the sit-at-home, people now go to Port Harcourt, Uyo and Calabar to open their containers.

“They’re leaving Southeast and moving out to Lagos. When we all leave, who will you blame? The captains of industries are no longer there,” he said.

The legislator who lamented that the insecurity of the Southeast had assumed the biggest problem of the region said the situation in the zone is the biggest problem we are facing now, and the sooner we tackle it the better for us.

“Even if you are seeking a separate country, why would you destroy your own place with your hands? You need to have a viable country and not a scattered one.

Also speaking to newsmen, the new ECCIMA president, Barr. Nduagwuike, lamented the terrible hardship the IPOB sit- at home has inflicted on the people of South East zone.

He said if continued, the situation may soon cripple the South East economy completely.