•It’s business as usual in Enugu, Aba
Yesterday’s sit-at-home strike declared by the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) turned bloody in Onitsha, leaving two members of the group dead.
Two vehicles were also burnt, according to official figures from the police.
However, MASSOB claimed that 10 of its members were shot dead by security agencies.
Other sources said six persons died and five vehicles, including a fully loaded petrol tanker, were burnt.
The incident occurred on Bida road, Oba, on the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway at about 8am.
The MASSOB members were said to be driving around the city to enforce compliance with the sit-at-home order, when they sighted a Police Patrol team.
They panicked and made to escape from the area.
The driver of the MASSOB vehicle, sources said, engaged the car gear on the high speed and in the process the vehicle somersaulted, killing the occupants.
The police said the MASSOB members had attempted to block the highway with a luxury bus and a petrol tanker as part of the strategy to stop people from moving around.
Security agents thwarted the plan.
Spokesman for the State Police Command, Mr. Emeka Chukwuemeka, confirmed that only two vehicles were burnt while two MASSOB members were killed in an accident.
He said, “We had told them that they are not a parallel government and therefore should avoid violence. They have no right to block the streets and disturb people’s movement.”
The police also said a hand grenade and a bus snatched by MASSOB members were recovered on Bida Road.
The police team was led by the Onitsha Area commander, Ben Wordu, and the central police divisional officer (DPO), Tope Fasugba, who mobilised over 500 police men to all the flash points in the commercial city.
Wordu said: “Everywhere is calm and people are going about their normal businesses without any molestation. Security operatives are on top of the situation.”
Most shops in Awka, Ekwulobia, Onitsha, Nnewi and Ihiala in Anambra State were under lock and key for the better part of the day.
But human and vehicular movements were generally normal.
Residents of rural areas like Nibo, Oko, Omogho, Ufuma, Ajali, Nawfija and Umunze, all in Anambra also complied with the local daily markets and shops closed.
At Igboukwu, the market was closed and bonfire set in the middle of the Ekwulobia-Igboukwu-Ichida-Nnobi road.
Armed policemen and other security agents were deployed to strategic parts of the cities to ensure peace and order.
It was, however, business as usual in Enugu, Umuahia and Aba with shops and other commercial outlets operating undisturbed.
However, a splinter group of MASSOB known as Association of Igbo Youths Movement, called for the arrest of MASSOB leaders for allegedly threatening the peace.
The group claimed that the sit-at-home declared by MASSOB was a flop as the people failed to obey it.
However, MASSOB director of information, Uchena Madu, differed and said it was a huge success and that nothing would make it surrender its cause and the peaceful approach.
He claimed that five members of MASSOB where shot and killed at Oba on the Onitsha-Owerri road, while five others were shot at Bridge head and three others on Bida road in Onitsha.
However, he said he was yet to confirm the incidents at Bridge head and Bida Road.
He said: “We view the thousands of armed policemen, State Security Service (SSS), Civil Defence personnel patrolling the streets, roads, and the villages of Biafra as an act of cowardice.
“They are jittery over MASSOB, influence and acceptance in Igbo land. Today, we stand to tell President Jonathan that he is so much insensitive to numerous killings of Ndigbo in Northern Nigeria; that enough is enough. Our wives and children have suddenly become emergency widows and orphans.
“The level of compliance from Ndigbo to the sit-at-home order shows that no mountain can stop our move to freedom.”
He also decried what he called the incessant killing of Igbo in the north by the Islamist sect, Boko Haram.
Vincent Eze, a business operator in Eke Awka, said that the people decided to comply with the MASSOB order because Nigeria has not treated Igbo well like other Nigerians.
The sit-at-home order was a flop in Enugu.
Businesses went on as usual with all the markets in the town opened.
This was despite the message passed round by market criers hired by MASSOB.
All the busy areas of the town were equally open and it was business as usual.
Even MASSOB members who had threatened to unleash mayhem on whoever flouted the order were no-where to be found.
A trader at the one of the major markets in Enugu, Uche Ani who spoke to our reporter, said, “the MASSOB leadership has been misleading us in the past. I, in particular, will never heed their orders again.”
Ani queried whether “Uwazuruike will send me money to feed my family if I stay away from market today.”
A sales girl in one of the super malls in Enugu who simply gave her name as Nneka said as long as her working place was operating, she will never observe the sit-at-home order.
“My first allegiance is to the place that pays my salary and not MASSOB,” stressed Nneka.
The Enugu State police spokesman, Ebere Amaraizu, said that the police would deal with trouble makers.
The situation was not different in the commercial city of Aba, Abia State.
The residents ignored the sit-at-home order.
As early as 5:30 am commuters had begun to board vehicles at the popular Milverton Motor Park to their various destinations across the state and the country.
Mr. Chike Ihechukwu, a commuter, told our reporter that “I am travelling to Port Harcourt so early to deliver these suits to a groom, his best man and the page.
“The groom is getting married today (yesterday). I could not finish the suit yesterday (Friday). So, I have to go to Port Harcourt early enough to meet them and not because of the sit-at-home protest order from MASSOB.”
The Ariaria International market and others were also bustling as usual.
Mr. Kingsley Njinkeonye, a businessman said that if the sit-at-home order had been obeyed, it would have meant a breakdown of economic activities in the commercial city that is struggling to come back to life.
Another resident, Kingsley Ibe, said for those who witnessed the Civil War “we do not want to be reminded about what we passed through during that period. Such memories are better forgotten.”
The sit-at-home action was to protest the alleged killing of Igbo in the north by Boko Haram and the murder of the Apo Six by policemen at an Abuja police check point. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Biafrans! this is the time to intensify our struggle for the time for the division of the entity called Nigeria is very close and hence you freedom. Kudos for freedom is coming tomorrow. The Nigerian state is very sick and old. Nigeria is now at a cross road and confused. Long live Biafra, your freedom has come - the RISING SUN!
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