IPOB Announces May 30 As Sit-at-Home Day, Promises to Lock Down Nigeria

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has announced the date for the 2019 sit-at-home exercise.

The group said this year's exercise would hold on May 30, and that the group has made adequate arrangement to put the entire country on lock down for 24 hours.

In a statement signed by the Media and Publicity Secretary of the group, Emma Powerful, and  made available to Yellowstone on Thursday, it said this year's exercise would not only be in honour of those killed during the civil war and its members clamped down by security agents, but would include those killed by Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram sect.

IPOB said: "We announce the sit-at-home order throughout Biafraland and Nigeria in remembrance of our fallen heroes and heroines whose sacrifice made it possible for this generation to be alive today.

"We shall also remember all victims of Fulani herdsmen attacks, Boko Haram violence and those that died in the hands of Nigerian security agencies over the years that nobody remembers.

"We are calling on all the people of Southern Kaduna and Middle Belt, especially Benue, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Kogi States; those affected by herdsmen terrorism in Ondo, Osun and other states in Yoruba land to join the great family of IPOB in observing a day of solemn prayer and sit-at-home exercise to remember those who lost their lives unlawfully in the hands of Fulani terrorists, herdsmen and security agencies.”

On the modalities of this year's exercise, IPOB added: "This year's remembrance and sit-at-home order will be special because it will present a unique moment of shared pains and misery for all the families that lost their loved ones to war, hunger, starvation, disease, terrorism and state sponsored killings going on now in the contraption called Nigeria.

"There will be no human, vehicular or animal movement across Biafra land on May 30, 2019. Biafra land will be in total lock down. Middle Belt and Yoruba land brothers are also urged to join this historic sit-at-home exercise to honour the memory of all that died unjustly in Nigeria.

"Churches, Mosques, Synagogues and Temples are encouraged to open their places of worship on the midnight of May 29 for special midnight prayers in remembrance of all that died as a result of violence and sponsored killings.

"Special vigil will be held at the homes of select Biafran heroes and heroines who were murdered in cold blood in Biafra land."

May 30 every year has become an annual remembrance event initiated by IPOB. Leader of the group, Nnamdi Kanu, first announced the exercise three years ago, while still in detention in Kuje prison, Abuja.