There are hints that separatist leader and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) factional leader Mr. Simon Ekpa, who is headquartered in Finland, employs propaganda, fear mongering, and the distribution of untrue rumors to achieve the numerous sit-at-home exercises he orders.
Ekpa had ordered a week-long exercise in staying at home last week, warning in a video to deal with anyone who ventured to leave their house in any of the states in the South East.
In addition, Mondays are now typically spent at home in the South-East after two years of adoption.
However, there are unmistakable signs that Ekpa employed media to incite unrest, terror, and ground numerous regions of the South-East for a week.
According to Ekpa, the activity was required to put pressure on the federal government to release IPOB leader Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, who has been held by the Department of State Services, DSS.
He has been removed from the IPOB for a long time after being labeled by the organization multiple times as an impostor who is allegedly seeking to prevent Kanu’s release.
Feelers indicate that the group’s most recent tactic is to sow terror by fabricating stories about shootings on social media.
Residents flee as soon as they hear that gunmen are attacking.
In Anambra State, the week-long sit-at-home exercise that Ekpa ordered made clear how he manipulates fear to coerce people in the region to follow his demands.
It was first reported that Ekpa intended to assault Anambra State on Friday.
Previously, gunmen allegedly loyal to him were accused of attacking the states of Ebonyi and Enugu.
The gunmen allegedly already in custody smashed goods at Isieke market on Tuesday in Ebonyi.
A former governor of the state, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, denounced the practice of forcing innocent schoolchildren in Enugu to kneel and beg for their lives.
In an effort to impose the sit-at-home order, four of the gunmen were reportedly slain early on Friday.
In Imo State, gunmen carrying out the illegal sit-at-home campaign shot and killed a number of people, including a tricycle driver and his passenger, earlier this week.
On Friday, the majority of markets, parking lots, and schools opened for business, thus the rumor of an impending attack on Anambra was ignored.
When the first indication of trouble was felt, D reporter was traveling with other journalists to Aguluzigbo in the Anaocha Local Government Area in order to keep an appointment.
While a funeral service for a deceased parishioner was being held at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Aguluzigbo, journalists came and saw a sizable group of security personnel, including police, soldiers, and vigilante operators, all on high alert.
Security personnel pleaded with Mrs. Jane, a woman who runs a kiosk, not to close her business as she was desperately attempting to do so.
“We just got word that there are gunmen operating at Afor Agulu right now,” she stated.
Surprisingly, the reporter drove by the same Afor Agulu to go to Aguluzigbo and saw no sign of any incident or scare.
Further investigation, however, revealed that nobody was able to name anyone who was actually attacked at Afor Agulu or who agreed to know someone who was attacked.
The rumor quickly spread throughout the neighborhood, forcing businesses to close.
There were rumors that gunmen were operating at the Eke Awka market and would thereafter travel to Aroma, according to a mom named Mrs. Nwakaego Eleke, who hurriedly removed her children from school.
A market vendor, however, told journalists over the phone that there had been no attack there, but rather that Aroma Junction was under siege and that the shooters would next move to Eke Awka market.
Mr. Felix Eze, a local of Onitsha, stated: “I heard that six persons have so far been slain around Upper Iweka. Although I’m not currently in Onitsha, people there are keeping me informed on what’s going on there.
The Anambra State police and government responded to the rumors by saying they were planned to cause instability in the state.
Mr. Christian Aburime, the governor of Anambra State’s press secretary, blamed the alarm in the state on a misrepresentation in Onitsha, where Anambra Vigilante Group (AVG) agents on patrol were mistaken for armed criminals.
Aburime denounced the persistent fabrication on social media by those he claimed to be Anambra State’s opponents and who have been working to de-market the state.
DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, the Anambra State Police Command’s spokesperson, responded to the incident by saying: “We have noted with great dismay, the mischievous act of persons distributing false security alerts/messages, and doctoring old recordings of security incidents to cause tension/panic in the State. Given the foregoing, the Command will enforce pertinent cyberlaws against anyone deemed to be lacking in this area.
He denied claims that there had been attacks elsewhere in the state, claiming that the police had been sufficiently mobilized to repel any assaults.
In order to tour several erosion sites in the state, this reporter traveled through a number of local government areas, including Nnewi, Anaocha, Idemili North, Idemili South, and Ekwusigo. The reporter was in Senator Victor Umeh’s convoy, who represents Anambra Central.
Many villagers ran from various areas when they saw the senator’s convoy because of the attack fear that the separatists had propagated.
“When people were running up and down, pulling their kids out of school, I knew it was propaganda,” public affairs pundit Barr Julius Ekemezie remarked.
“Outside of Simon Ekpa, the IPOB collectively has mastered the use of propaganda and fear tactics. Did you witness it? was the single query I posed to everyone who discussed the attack that day.
“In actuality, no one saw any attack; they were just spreading false information,”
It’s the same story in Enugu State, where the administration of Governor Peter Mbah has attributed the ongoing stay-at-home to rumor-mongering.
In a statement released on Wednesday by Professor Chidiebere Onyia, Secretary to the State Government, the government committed to pursue individuals responsible for inciting fear among the populace and fomenting terror.
By purposefully inciting fear and panic among the law-abiding citizens of our state, he claimed that these individuals are trying to test the government’s commitment to stop the unconstitutional sit-at-home order.
“The government and the security agencies are already looking for the purveyors and instigators of the fake news and mayhem with a view to bringing them to book.”
The state government advised the general public to dismiss the lies and fraudulent pictures being circulated on social media and to “go about their businesses, as security measures are fully in place to enforce law and order as well as safeguard lives and property.”
“We must not fall prey to the cunning plans of those who have no stake in our state; those who, for the most part, reside abroad, earn their living there, and send their kids to foreign schools, all the while wrecking our people’s economies and threatening the future and education of our kids at home.
“The administration hereby confirms that Enugu State’s sit-at-home ban is still in effect and would be strictly implemented.
“Among other things, all offices, markets, commercial locations, and schools are still open and operating as usual. The government vowed that anyone attempting to undermine Ndi Enugu’s unity and strength will not only lose but also face the full force of the law.
Two days later, in a similar statement, the administration advised the populace to reject any scaremongers and go about their daily lives because security measures were in place to continue upholding law and order and protecting people’s lives and property.
It is noteworthy that many of the enemies of Enugu State and Igbo land—hoodlums, anarchists, and criminal elements—have been found, captured, and are currently being prosecuted for their crimes of destruction and violent crime, as well as for their use of phony videos and images to spread fear.
“We are winning the war, so I’m calling on Ndi Enugu to come forward with information to the authorities about any suspicious person or movement, as well as those who use social media to spread misinformation and cause panic among the populace.”
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo, meanwhile, has charged Ekpa with playing the part of Igbo land’s adversaries and amassing vast quantities of money in order to undermine the region’s development and destabilize it.
The foremost Igbo sociocultural organization charged Ekpa, a company with its headquarters in Finland, with taking use of the pro-Biafra cause and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s reputation to enrich himself at the expense of Ndigbo lives and property.
The National President of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, Mazi Okwu Nnabuihe, signed a statement containing these on Sunday and delivered it to newsmen in Enugu.
The group claimed that Ekpa’s sit-at-home instructions were a part of a plot to destabilize politics in the South East, as well as the region’s economy and social fabric.
“We want to make it crystal clear to Ndigbo, Nigerians, and the rest of the world that Simon Ekpa is not opposed to the cause of Biafra or Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Instead, he turned us over to our adversaries, who are determined to undermine our social, political, and economic systems. Knowing that the Federal Government will keep Kanu in custody as long as Igboland is unruly, he is also actively pushing against Kanu’s release in order to keep earning money.
Ekpa is clearly being sponsored and encouraged to demolish and keep the region down, as seen by the significant loss of investments and the movement of existing ones to other regions of the country, in the same way that the South-East’s loss is the country’s benefit.
Ohanaeze also criticized Finland’s administration for what it perceived as that country’s role in the violence and bloodshed in the region’s South-East.
“We want to make it clear to the Government of Finland that it cannot hold itself out as being completely free of all the crimes and murders committed in the South-East by followers of Ekpa’s lunatic sit-at-homes.
“We are baffled as to why such a culture, known for its high regard for human life, can continue to harbor Ekpa and permit Ekpa to openly encourage calamity and direct wanton devastation of lives and property in Igboland. If his words and deeds result in the death of even one Finnish citizen, would they likewise treat him with kid gloves? questioned Okwu.
