My people can’t survive 14 days sit-at-home – Otti
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, OFR, says residents of the state cannot afford to stay at home for two weeks in compliance with the directive issued by a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), led by fugitive Simon Ekpa.
“The woman that is selling pepper in the market, if she sits at home for two weeks, she will die of hunger,” because she lives on her daily income, the Governor was quoted to have told newsmen in Abuja n Moday.
Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Governor, Kazie Uko, in a statement, disclosed that
Governor Otti spoke on the sideline of a security meeting convened by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, to address the issue of insecurity in the region.
The meeting was attended by the governors of the South East states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. While Otti and his Imo counterpart, Hope Uzodimma, attended in person, the other governors were represented.
The Abia Governor said only a handful of people were benefitting from the sit-at-home order, using the instrument of fear to intimidate the people, and as such, government cannot sit and watch them succeed.
“Governments all over the world cannot be threatened and we need to sound that note of warning.
“You cannot afford to sit at home when you have work to do. A lot of people live on a daily basis; the taxi drivers, the keke drivers; the woman that is selling pepper in the market, if she sits at home for two weeks, she will die of hunger. So, it (the order) is null and void,” Dr. Otti told journalists, who spoke with him after the meeting.
Ekpa and his faction had recently directed that people of the South east should observe a two-week sit-at-home to protest the continued detention of IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, at the Department of State Security (DSS) facility in Abuja.