Enyinnaya Abaribe, lawmaker for Abia South, says Biafra agitator Simon Ekpa does not want to end the sit-at-home order in the southeast of Nigeria because he profits from the chaos.
According to Abaribe, Ekpa and his allies are now using the order as a means of making money. He made this statement in an interview with Channels Television on Monday, August 7.
Abaribe said after receiving a handwritten communication from Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB’s leader, Ekpa refused to overturn the order to stay at home because he stands to gain financially from it.
The lawmaker said, “ Last week, there was a hand-written message from him (Kanu). Of course, the man who is profiting from it, who is far away in Finland, denounced it and put more conditions saying they will never stop it until we (south-east leaders) see him in Finland.
“We can now see that because they profit from this, they are not going to stop it because it has become a money-making venture.
“We have seen adverts on the internet asking people to contribute money for the liberation of Biafra.”
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Abaribe stated that the leaders of the southeast would contact the federal government to discuss how to find a solution. “Now, what do we do? We have to engage the government because there are also some subsisting issues on the ground.
“The court had granted him his freedom, and the government applied to the same appeal court for a stay of execution and appealled to the supreme court. The supreme court has not taken any decision.
“Part of the resolution is that we are going to engage everyone. “We are going to engage the government at the same time on how we can make a solution that is favourable to all.”
Recall that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has ordered Biafra agitator Simon Ekpa to end all the sit-at-home orders in the South-East. Kanu warned Ekpa “to make a public announcement to the effect that he (Ekpa) received a direct order from him (Kanu) to cancel any pending sit-at-home in place at the moment.”
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