Security operatives hit IPOB stronghold in Anambra, recover arms, others

• Enugu residents lament sit-at-home order as Abia citizens comply
• HURIWA seeks end to directive

The Nigeria Army, yesterday, disclosed that its operatives neutralised a stronghold of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) at Lilu forest in Ihiala Council of Anambra State.

In a statement issued by Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, explained that the operation was jointly conducted by troops of 82 Division, Nigerian Navy, 211 Quick Response Group of the Nigeria Air Force, Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police.

He said after neutralising the dissidents, the operatives recovered 10 pump-action shotguns, two locally-made guns, a revolver pistol, rounds of 7.62 mm special live cartridges, cutlasses and IPOB flags.

He said other items recovered include mobile phones, laptops and other dangerous weapons.

IN a related development, residents of Enugu State, yesterday, lamented the ongoing sit-at-home order and urged the governors and leaders of the South East region to intervene and save the economy of the zone.

They lamented that the directive and insecurity had paralysed the socio-economic activities of the region, as residents stayed at home, while banks, markets, government institutions and schools did not open for operations.

The Guardian, however, learnt that before the security operatives intervened, enforcers of the directive disrupted a church service in Onitsha, the commercial hub of Anambra State.

Some residents of Enugu, Mrs. Jane Onwudiwe, Grace Obi and Joyce Orji, among others, told, The Guardian on phone yesterday that it had become difficult to plan with the incessant disruptions in activities created by the sit-at-home order, lamenting that even children could not go to school due to activities of the purported enforcers.
BUT in Abia State, the people complied with the sit-at-home directive, just as Aloy Ejimakor, Special Counsel for Kanu, faulted the Federal Government’s amendment of the charges against Kanu in Abuja Federal High Court bordering on alleged terrorism.

Markets and other businesses were closed in Umuahia, the state capital, as residents observed the sit-at-home order on Monday and Tuesday.

MEANWHILE, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has stressed the need for IPOB to end the sit-at-home order and to address economic self-extermination programmes in the South East region.

It said the sit-at-home order, no matter the intentions, was meant to destroy the South East, which rose from the ashes of the civil war to an economic powerhouse reckoned in Nigeria and the West Coast with a dint of hard work.

In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and National Media Adviser, Zainab Yusuf, the group condemned the economic destabilisation and the paralysis of commercial and other activities in the South East on the sit-at-home days.