A hand-written letter circulating on social media since Friday afternoon and attributed to the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu as the author, has ordered an acclaimed leader of the group, Simon Ekpa, to announce a perpetual end to sit-at-home in Igbo land.
The two-page hand-written letter, which appears to be on A-4 plain paper, gave a definite directive to Ekpa to stop henceforth from calling or announcing movement and business restrictions in Igbo land.
The letter reads: “Simon, this is a direct order from me. I hereby instruct you to desist from calling for any sit-at-home henceforth.
Equally, refrain from antagonisng governors or persons in political positions because you are not in a position to know what they are doing on my behalf.
I am ordering you to make a public announcement to the effect that you are in receipt of a direct order from me to cancel any pending or future sit-at-home order in place at the moment.
I embarked on this movement to liberate our people, not to enslave them.
I despise and will despise any person or entity that wishes to inflict unnecessary hardship on our people.
I have authorised Aloy to issue a press statement if you fail to make this announcement on your own platform”.
The letter had three signatures of the author on the two pages, two on the top and bottom of the first page and another at the bottom of the last page.
The letter ostensibly written in the handwriting of Kanu didn’t however have any date on it, even though it started circulating on Friday.
It also did not bear the attributes of a formal or informal letter as Kanu’s address as at the time it was written was also not on the letter.
Sometime last year, during one of the trial sessions at the Federal High Court, Abuja, Kanu standing with his team of lawyers was recorded saying a similar thing in a live video that circulated on social media.
His position in the letter credited to him carried the message relayed in the live video that he didn’t embark on the Biafra movement to impose suffering on the Igbo people but to help them out of what he described as “existential suffering and maltreatment against them by the Nigerian system”.
