Deputy
Senate President, Ike Ekweremmadu, has advised that the sit-at-home order
declared by some right groups in South-East for May 30 should be optional. The
Indigenous Peoples of Biafra and the Movement for the Actualization of the
Sovereign State of Biafra had called on citizens of South-East to stay at home
on May 30 to observe their anniversary.
Ekweremmadu
gave the advice on Sunday at an Inter-denominational church service at the
Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, Abakaliki, to commemorate 2017 Democracy Day
and Gov. David Umahi’s second year in office.
Vanguard reported that, He noted that while the agitation
and concerns of the groups are genuine, they should not be pursued with force
or other forms of armed struggle. “Individuals who operate private businesses
and want to stay-at-home on that day should stay, while those who want to
operate their businesses should be allowed to do so.
“I believe that civil and
public workers should be ready to go to work on that day as I appeal that no
group should force people to stay at home against their wishes,” he added. The
deputy senate president called on the agitators to embrace dialogue and
constructive engagement in pursuing their agitation; not coercion or other
forms of armed struggle.
“The struggles and concerns are genuine but with the
collaboration of all and constructive engagement, we will surely get to our
destination no matter how long it takes.
“Black Americans agitated for a long
time before Barack Obama became president in 2008, likewise in India, it took
constructive engagement for the people to actualise their agitation.
“South
Africa despite racial disturbances and black oppression, employed constructive
engagement and intervention of the western world and African interests such as
Nigeria’s, to dismantle apartheid,”
he said. Ekweremadu congratulated the
people of Ebonyi on the second year in office of their governor. He noted that
the state had matured politically and socially, adding that any indigene could
aspire for any political office in the state. In his remark, Umahi noted that
no individual or group would force the citizens of the state to stay-at-home on
May 30.
“I have met the leadership of these groups on various occasions and
discovered that most of their agitations are correct but the ways they seek to
actualise them can be faulted.
“I have also met the leadership of market unions
in the state and we resolved that markets would be open on that day and no
trader or any other individual will be molested,” he said. The governor said
that the case of Ebonyi was different as the state had suffered untold
marginalisation right from its days in old Anambra, Imo, Enugu and Abia states.
“The deputy senate president is fighting marginalisation of the Igbos at the
federal level; when this is addressed, we will start our own agitation of
marginalisation as a state. “Ebonyi does not believe in regional government
because we will continue suffering deprivation but believe in the restructuring
of the country to address all imbalances,” he said.
In his homily, Rev. Fr
Abraham Nwali urged political and economic leaders in the state to build
industries instead of embarking on ‘non-direct-impact’ projects such as hotels.
“The governor should be supported in his desire to ensure that sachet water
companies are constructed in the three senatorial zones of the state,’’ he
said. Newsmen report that prayers were said by officiating ministers of the
Presbyterian Church for the unity of the country and peace in Ebonyi.
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