Senator representing Anambra South, Ifeanyi Ubah, has told a Biafran agitator, Simon Ekpa, to take his sit-at-home campaign to his home state of Ebonyi and leave Anambra State out of it.
Ubah had urged residents of the state to open their businesses on the first weekday and shun the Monday sit-at-home order by non-state actors.
There have been several reports of attacks on residents who defied the sit-at-home order of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Last week, De-facto IPOB leader, Simon Ekpa ordered the South East states to embark on a sit-at-home exercise to protest the continued detention of erstwhile leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
But Ubah says the move is detrimental to Anambra indegenes and has warned Ekpa to stay off Anambra indigenes.
“We have observed the sit-at-home for nearly two years now and every Monday, all business activity in our state is paralysed,” Ubah said on Monday, July 3 during a live interview on Channels Television.
“Because of that, we the stakeholders of my senatorial district have come to a conclusion that it’s time for us to open our businesses on Monday.”
“Some people who are not residents of our zone or even in the country have used this sit-at-home to create fear in people and, at the same time, are making money and impoverishing our people. It is time for us to move on,” the senator said.
Ubah asked Ekpa to take the crusade to his people in Ebonyi and leave Anambra State.
I have heard from one Simon Ekpa, this is a warning Simon, for 17 good times you have mentioned Ifeanyi Ubah and I did not reply to you. You have been seeking my attention for 17 good times and I am answering you today, never ever mention Ifeanyi Ubah or Nnewi again.
Your state Ebonyi is APC state and you have never one day mentioned your state Ebonyi. Ebonyi does not observe sit-at-home, you are in Finland contesting for councillorship or whatever, and you go to your job on Mondays but you want to deprive people because you have communication gadgets, you have the internet to run propaganda.
“I am elected officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and I represent the people of Anambra South. To you Simon Ekpa and your co-travellers, for anyone of you to mention sit-at-home again, you will start preaching the sit-at-home from Ebonyi before you continue to mention Anambra State and Enugu.
I am telling you Simon Ekpa, be careful, I won’t say more than this, you have mentioned me 17 times and I’m going to reply once, Try me you will see. Go and observe sit-at-home in Ebonyi and also with your father, your family go and observe sit-at-home in your village and leave Anambra State alone,” Ubah said.
He decried that schools in the entire state were closed each Monday as the world moved forward.
“If the world is moving on and almost every part of this country is moving on and our children would not be going to school, our businesses are closed, then we are losing a very serious economy,” he said.
“That is the essence of our being elected: to serve our people and to look at what is good for our people.”
The entrepreneur criticized the continued detention of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) as the excuse for the sit-at-home order.
“I think what we need is constructive engagement with the Federal Government on the release of our brother, Nnamdi Kanu. But using that as an opportunity to paralyse the activities of the South-East, to me, is totally unacceptable henceforth,” he added.