By Editor

•Ebonyi workers, others observe IPOB’s sit-at-home THE Nigeria Labour Congress in Ebonyi State has dared Governor David Umahi to carry out his threat of sacking civil servants who failed to report to work as a result of the sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra.

Umahi had on Sunday threatened to terminate the appointment of state workers who stayed away from work and also vowed to confiscate traders’ shops that were not opened for business in solidarity with IPOB’s sit-at-home order.

Although IPOB had since suspended the order, businesses in Ebonyi State and four other states in the South-East were grounded as workers and traders stayed indoors on Monday.

The Chairman of NLC in the state, Okechukwu Nwafor, told newsmen on Monday that since there was no commercial vehicle to take workers to their various places of work, the threat from the governor was not necessary.

Nwafor said, “The governor has no such right to sack anybody for not going to work today. And if he does that, I will contest it in court as the chairman of NLC in the state. Let him try me.

“The situation is bad and I, as the Chairman of NLC in Ebonyi State, also told workers not to risk their lives. In a day like this that there is no keke (commercial tricycle), there is no okada, people cannot go to work by foot. The distance is so long that they cannot trek.

“We will go to court if he sacks anybody for not coming to work on Mondays. Today (Monday), he used police to protect himself and his family. Has he provided police to protect the workers down to their offices?”

Similarly, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party described Umahi’s threat to sack civil servants as a display of double standard.

According to the opposition party in the state, Umahi’s private firms didn’t open for business on Monday, wondering why ordinary citizens could risk their lives by so doing.

The state PDP said in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Silas Onu, “This threat is not just a brazen display of despondency, but a clear case of double standard as even the governor himself has complied with the IPOB sit-at-home order beyond 100 per cent.

“A visit to all his private business interests will reveal that they are all locked down. The Government House/offices aren’t spared as they are also locked down. So, if a leader himself is unsure of his safety and opts to obey the order of non-state actors in spite of all his security guards, why shouldn’t an ordinary civil servant obey?”

We’ll sack workers for absence from duty, Ebonyi insists

But despite the criticism over Umahi’s threat, the Ebonyi State Government reiterated its resolve to deal with workers who absented themselves from work as a result of the sit-at-home order.

A statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government and Coordinating Commissioner, Dr Kenneth Ugbala, directed all ministries, departments and agencies in the state to enforce the resolve to sack workers.

The statement partly read, “His Excellency, the Governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. David Umahi, has directed that all civil and public servants must report to work across the state on Monday and whosoever fails to report to his or her duty post, stands to lose his/her job. All heads of MDA’s are to take note and also maintain attendance of workers.

“Similarly, any shop or bank that fails to open for business activities on Monday, August 30, 2021, in Ebonyi State, stands the risk of losing the right to operate business or banking operation in the state.”

Asked if the Imo Government would toe the line of the threat by Umahi, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, said the civil servants in the state were working as against IPOB’s sit-at-home order.

Emelumba said, “For Imo State, the civil servants are going to work and they are not respecting the IPOB sit-at-home order. So what is playing out in Ebonyi cannot play out in Imo State. We are peaceful here in Imo.”

Still in Ebonyi, there was a total shutdown of banks, markets, shops and filling stations in the Abakaliki, the state capital

In Anambra State, the sit-at-home protest announced by the Indigenous People of Biafra on August 9 persisted in the South-East region after it was suspended three weeks ago.

However, there were reports of attacks on those who violated the sit-at-home order in some parts of the state by people suspected to be IPOB enforcers.

In a trending video, some people who called themselves Biafra Motherland Warriors were seen attacking members of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Umueri in the Anambra East Local Government Area.

A member of the corps who seen in the video running into the bush during the attack was heard shouting “I’m Igbo! I’m Igbo!

His attackers responded, “Igbo my foot. Drop your gun and remove your uniform and disappear from there.”

But the NSCDC denied the attack in a statement by its state Commandant, Edwin Okadigo.

‘Sit-at-home compliance not for Biafra solidarity’

In a related development, the Anambra Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, C-Don Adinuba, said the state government would convoke a stakeholders’ meeting to find a solution to the “every Monday” sit-at-home protest as it concerned civil servants and traders in the state.

Adinuba said the compliance to the order was purely out of fear of possible attack by hoodlums and not necessarily because of solidarity to the Biafra cause.

In Owerri, the Imo State capital, residents, for the fourth Monday running, had continued to observe the weekly sit-at-home order which had been cancelled by IPOB.