Ipob plans sit-at-home protest across Nigeria on May 30 to mark Biafra Remembrance Day

SECESSIONIST group the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) has announced plans to shut down the southeast with another stay-at-home sit-in on May 30 during the Biafran Remembrance Day celebrations.

On May 30 1967, the Republic of Biafra was declared, sparking the Nigerian Civil War, which lasted until January 1970. Later this week, several Biafran groups will celebrate the 51st anniversary of the declaration and Ipob has said it will use the occasion to not mark the event but also highlight the ongoing killing of Biafrans by herdsmen and soldiers.

Ipob spokesman Emma Powerful, said “Our May 30th sit-at-home order is sacrosanct and shall be observed annually until the end of time. May 30 2018 will witness a total lock-down of the southeast, south-south and selected states and cities across Nigeria.

"Not only will our heroes and heroines of the class of 67-70 be honoured in the finest traditions of Ipob but other victims of sectarian violence and Fulani terror herdsmen, Boko Haram and state-sponsored extra judicial killings, will also be remembered. A two minute silence will be observed at 12 noon on the 30th to ponder and reflect upon the courage and patriotism of the brave men and women that willingly sacrificed their lives to preserve what is left of our race today."

He added that Ndigbo must remember, reflect and ponder over the pain and suffering of over 1m innocent Biafran children deliberately starved to death by the Nigerian government as a result of an evil policy to wipe out an entire race of people from the face of the earth. According to Mr Powerful, without the heroics of Biafran soldiers in the Civil War, the plans of the enemy to forcibly erase Ndigbo from the face of the earth and turn their land into an Islamic enclave would have succeeded.

"We shall continue to remember our heroes the way every other single civilised society and world remembers their war dead. It will take an extraordinarily high level of insensitivity, ignorance and self hatred for any Biafran, no matter where domiciled in the world, not to observe May 30  2018 Heroes Remembrance Day.

"We owe it to our glorious dead to honour their bravery, heroics and sacrifice that ensured that the southeast and south-south remain to this day an area untainted by Islamic dominance, the only entity in West Africa to have such distinction. We cannot repay them enough for what they did for us, therefore, we must honour them," Mr Powerful added.

Ipob pointed out that there will be no human or vehicular movement anywhere across the southeast  from 6pm on the evening of May 29 to 6pm on the 30th. It asked that all road journeys should be terminated at exactly 6pm on the 29th and any vehicle seen on the road after 6pm on the 29th will be regarded as a mark of disrespect and treated as an enemy of the Biafran people.

Mr Powerful added: "Only ambulances and those responding to emergencies are allowed on the roads. No living being should be seen outside on the 30th of May because it is the most important date in the calendar of our people and shall remain so forever and ever.

“As was previously announced, the May 30th sit-at-home this 2018 will encompass southern Kaduna and Benue states and those areas in the Middle Belt experiencing unprecedented human suffering and ethnic cleansing. Some Yoruba states including Lagos where Fulani terrorist herdsmen activities had been most noticeable, are also expected to join the sit-at-home."