Gani Adam warns Simon Ekpa as IPOB faction threatens to launch sit-at-home in Lagos, Yorubaland
Gani Adam warns Simon Ekpa as IPOB faction threatens to launch sit-at-home in Lagos, Yorubaland
THE Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, has warned the factional leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Simon Ekpa, to stay off Yorubaland and remove Lagos from the list of states his group is planning to ground with the sit-at-home protest currently being enforced in the South East.
It will be recalled that Ekpa had in a recent tweet hinted of plans by IPOB to replicate the sit-at-home in Lagos.
In the tweet, Ekpa had said that: “Biafrans in Lagos should get ready to be part of the demand to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. We are coming to Lagos after the two-week-long sit at home.
“It is time to show your solidarity to this call for justice. Biafrans in Lagos will lock down. The consultation will start soon,” his tweet reportedly read in part.
But while reacting in a telephone interview with Saturday Tribune, Aare Adams cautioned the IPOB factional leader against contemplating such a move or attempting to impose IPOB agenda on Lagos or any other part of the South West because the region is not Biafra Republic.
He said the Finnish-based ethnic propagandist should desist from “repeating the mistake of the 1970s,” and drop the move which he described as uncalled-for and counterproductive.
The Aare Ona Kakanfo emphasised that the South-West is not part of “their Biafra” Republic and as such, it was preposterous for “outsiders to dictate or impose their agenda on people of other regions whom they cohabit with as residents.”
He said: “I can’t go to the South East now and say I want to decide for the people of that region. So, it is not possible to import South-East agenda into Yorubaland. It would be coun- terproductive. We advise him (Ekpa) to drop that idea.
“He should not try that. The South West is not Biafra Re- public. Any attempt to impose Biafra Republic agenda will be resisted. He should desist from repeating the mistake of the 1970s. He should be very, very careful.
“They are entitled to their opinion, but South West is not their Biafran region. He should be very, very careful.
“He should not come and impose his own agenda on the South West. It is uncalled-for, it is unwarranted. Although I don’t know him and I have not spoken to him, he should not bring unnecessary tension to Yorubaland. We will not accept that.”
The Aare Onakakanfo reiterated the position of the South West that Nigeria should be re- structured into true federalism whereby each of the federating units would be allowed to develop at their own pace.
He said: “Our position is true federalism, that is, the restructuring of Nigeria into regions, for the regions to develop at their own pace.
Ekpa, in issuing a fresh threat of another lockdown, had reportedly said the sit-at-home was to demand “the immediate and unconditional release of IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who remains illegally detained at the DSS dungeon.”
He said: “Following the demand by the Biafra people for more sit-at-home civil disobedience, the Biafra Republic Government In-Exile (BRGIE) and Biafra De Facto Government in Homeland wish to notify Biafrans that there will be a sit-at-home civil disobedience starting from 31 July, 2023 to 14 August, 2023.”
He said the protest was also in preparation for “Biafra’s self-referendum” and to put the world on notice that “Biafrans” were taking their future in their own hands.
The IPOB factional leader added that the sit-at-home would be observed “to invalidate the illegitimacy of those who parade themselves as Nigeria’s representatives within Biafran territory,” the Yoruba leader added.
