Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to allow the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, to address the media to put an end to the confusion surrounding the sit-at-home order in the South East.
This is following a series of skirmishes and targeted violence and attacks masterminded by some armed supporters of the Finland-based Simon Ekpa.
People living and doing business in the South East have been under siege in recent months as they cannot go about their legitimate businesses.
The IPOB’s leadership has, on many occasions, distanced itself from any sit-at-home, urging Nigerians living in the zone to go about their legitimate business but that has not stopped the killing of people in the South East in the name of sit-at-home.
There have been stories of killings and maiming of innocent Nigerians who alter the sit-at-home order for one reason or the other, as the South East is shut down every Monday and on other occasions.
And now HURIWA, through a statement signed by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, is calling on Buhari to let Kanu personally address the media affirming and categorically confirming the suspension of the sit-at-home order.
HURIWA has also criticised the law enforcement agents and the Department of State Services for the failure of intelligence to nip in the bud the dozens of bloody attacks effectively.
HURIWA accused the Police and the other security agencies in the South East of being happy watching the commoners being decimated, degraded and almost on the verge of being wiped off the earth.
“The President should let Mazi Nnamdi Kanu speak to Igbo people to affirm or deny the report by his lawyers that he had ordered an end to the Sit-at-home order which one Mr. Simon Ekpa an alleged follower of the detained leader disputed and ordered for forceful implementation of the so called Sit-at-home order,” HURIWA pleaded.
The group further pointed out that a live television broadcast by Kanu on the confusion surrounding the sit-at-home order would assuage the suspended animation and suspicions “by some persons loyal to Simon Ekpa that Nnamdi Kanu did not order an end to the economically stagnating sit-at-home order in the South East of Nigeria.
“Secondly, just as was done in Ukraine, President Muhammadu Buhari should democratise arms licences so sane adult Nigerians can bear AK-47 and AK-49.
“If President Muhammadu Buhari is not the sponsor of the chaos in the South-East then let his government adopt a pragmatic approach such as permitting that Kanu addresses the media as a matter of extreme urgency to put an end to these killings,” it said.