30th July, 2023
By Stanley Nwanosike
Enugu youths have stormed the streets in peaceful protests to support an end to IPOB’s illegal sit-at-home order in the South East.
The youths, in their numbers on Saturday, marched through major roads and streets in the Enugu metropolis with placards carrying inscriptions: “Even Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is Against Sit-at-Home” and “Sit-at-Home discourages economic progress”.
The Leader of Enugu Innovative Youths, Mr Maduabuchi Edeani, said people pushing the illegal order under any guise should stop it, adding that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of IPOB, was against it and had publicly called for its cancellation.
Edeani said that the action had resulted in untold hardships and poverty in Enugu State and by extension, the entire South-East.
“The illegal sit-at-home is causing so much havoc and making our education, health and economic institutions not function optimally and our people are counting their losses both as individuals, groups and corporate entities.
“We as youths in Enugu State are supporting Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in his stance to stop and totally cancel the illegal sit-at-home being engineered by a misguided Nigerian in Finland.
“We are here to let the world know that anybody supporting the illegal sit-at-home is against the South-East, good people of Enugu State and the future of youths in the state and South-East in general.
“I call on all youths in Enugu State and South-East to desist from supporting the anti-progressive, evil and illegal sit-at-home.
“It remains a wrong path and it will not do anybody any good, rather it will truncate our future and prospects in life as youths,” he added.
Edeani also appealed to the Federal Government to obey the court order to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, adding that it would help to reinvigorate the South-East and bring the manipulation by a few hoodlums to an end.
Contributing, Mr Ebube Nebo, a youth leader in Enugu State, said that youths were tired of the order, adding: “Sit-at-home is a cankerworm gradually snowballing into a big monster of human and economic waste.”
“In all sincerity, we are suffering. It is not just about what the Enugu State governor is saying to end it, we are indeed suffering and feeling the pains of our deprivation and loss resulting from the illegal sit-at-home.
“As youths, it is affecting our education, employment, and entrepreneurial prospects, while our fathers and mothers, especially those in the villages and suburbs, are living in untold hardships,” Nebo said.
Nebo reiterated the displeasure of the South East over the continuous incarceration of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and called for his freedom.
The youths covered 30 kilometres in the march within the Enugu metropolis which covered Okpara Square Road, Presidential Road, Owerri Road, Ogui Road, Lagos Street and Basiala Road, among others.
(NAN)