Monday sit-@-home: You can’t compel citizens against their wish, IPoB replies Soludo 

By Steve Oko

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has faulted Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, over his reported threat to sanction residents who observe the Monday sit-at-home protest declared in solidarity with its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

IPOB, in a statement issued by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said the Governor lacks constitutional authority to compel citizens to move about or open their businesses against their will.

According to the group, the sit-at-home protest is a peaceful, voluntary act of civil disobedience and not an act of terrorism or rebellion.

“Anambra is not a military barracks, and the people are not tenants in their own land,” the statement said. “No governor has the lawful power to coerce free citizens to go about their normal activities against their conscience, especially when their action is a non-violent expression of protest.”

IPOB maintained that the Monday sit-at-home is a symbolic and peaceful refusal to cooperate with what it described as an unjust system, stressing that citizens who choose to stay indoors are merely exercising their fundamental rights.

“If traders, students, professionals, elders and youths voluntarily decide to remain at home on Mondays as a silent protest against the continued detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, that is their constitutional right. It is not a crime, an offence, or an act of rebellion,” the group stated.

The pro-Biafra movement warned that any attempt by the state government to criminalise peaceful protest amounts to an assault on the dignity of the people.

IPOB accused Governor Soludo of harassing his own people in a bid to curry favour with the Federal Government, instead of addressing the underlying injustice fueling agitation in the South-East.

“The frustration in Igboland is deep, the pain is historic, and the anger is justified. The sit-at-home is a token expression of that collective burden,” the statement said.

The group also criticised what it described as selective treatment of insecurity across the country, alleging that while violent criminals are tolerated and rehabilitated in other regions, peaceful agitators in Igboland are persecuted.

IPOB further warned against the establishment of any task force or enforcement squad to compel compliance, describing such action as illegitimate, provocative and oppressive.

“We do not force anyone to sit at home, but no government will force people to go out. The sit-at-home is voluntary — a personal and collective statement of conscience and solidarity,” the group stated.

IPOB advised the Anambra governor to focus on governance, security, infrastructure and development rather than issuing threats to residents.

“A governor who fights traders for protesting injustice is not building Dubai; he is building resentment and planting division,” the statement noted.

The group insisted that coercion cannot end the sit-at-home protest, adding that the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu remains the only solution.

“The solution is simple: release Nnamdi Kanu. Until that injustice is addressed, every Monday will remain a day of silent protest — not by violence or decree, but by conscience,” IPOB said.

It concluded by warning the governor against antagonising the people of the state, noting that history is unkind to leaders who turn against their own people to please external interests.”