We are tired of ‘Sit-At-Home’, Imo residents Cry out

Imo residents have decried the frequent sit at home orders usually observed in the region in recent times.

Speaking with Newsmen, several residents of Imo state said they were tired of staying at home.

“A citizen of Owerri, identified as Iwunze, also expressed dissatisfaction with the concept of prohibiting students from Comprehensive Secondary School, Nkume, Njaba Local Government Area, Imo State, from sitting for the West African Examination Council, WAEC, examination.

“The kids who were sitting for the English Language paper and the invigilators had to run for safety,” a community resident said.

See also IPOB disassociates Self from Weekly Sit-At-Home Orders.

“They set ablaze motorcycles belonging to some students and teachers. This exam should have been postponed to another day. They are just risking people’s lives.

“There was heavy shooting between security men and the gunmen. Everybody is lying inside. The situation is very terrifying and traumatizing.

“We now live everyday in fear of the unknown; we don’t know when this thing will end. They should please stop this problem; people are dying”.

A commercial bus driver, Isaac Okoye, termed the constant announcement of sit-at-home and attacks on individuals and businesses as wickedness against the Igbo.

See also “Sit at home”: Umahi reverses shops’ forfeiture order in Ebonyi

“I have a wife and four children, they expect me to provide money for feeding. Yet, for two days, I couldn’t go to work. And you expect me to be happy. This is wickedness.

“We all want Biafra, I know some people have died in the course of fighting for Biafra. But are we all going to die before the Biafra comes?

We said we want Biafra because we are being treated badly and you are still killing the Igbo in name of fighting for Biafra. They should stop this sit-at-home, I am tired”, he lamented.

Mr. Ifeanyi Onyeukwu, a retired principal, stated that people behind the sit-at-home movement may soon declare every day a sit-at-home day if nothing is done promptly.

Onyeukwu decried the attack on students taking the West African Examination Council exam in the state, as well as the destruction of motorcycles belonging to professors.

However, IPOB had in statement disassociated itself from the sit at home orders. It also stated that it will deal with the people who were enforcing the orders.

IPOB also promised to pay for the bikes burnt in the Imo state school and also rebuild the part of the school that was burnt.

A statement by the spokesman of IPOB reads in parts; “We strongly condemned the barbaric act by hoodlums and mentally deranged fellows who disrupted a WAEC exam in a school in Imo State on Monday. What a stupid madness! Whoever was behind such barbarity must be made to pay for their actions.

“IPOB leadership is hereby promising to replace those motorbikes burnt in the school to their owners and rebuild school blocks burnt by hoodlums in the name of ESN and IPOB volunteers.