By Samson Ezea
Since the Governor of Enugu State, Bar. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah in his government’s resolve and determination banned the counterproductive Monday IPOB sit-at-home order in the state, the people and residents of Enugu have shown enormous and tremendous readiness and support to government to bring the anathema to an end.
Quite encouraging and cheering is that even in the face of minor and expected sabotage, hitches, resistance and setbacks, Mbah’s government, security agencies and the people of Enugu are unrelenting in ending the menace.
It is crystal clear that even when majority of Enugu people have embraced the ban with happiness and commendations and joined hands with Mbah’s government to find a last solution to it, some few unscrupulous elements, mainly opposition politicians and their social media scaremongers, who lost out in the last elections, have remained covertly and overtly supportive of it and the perpetrators.
Navigating and perusing through activities, writings and comments on social media platforms since Mbah announced the ban and commenced actions to end, it would be observed that the oppositions’ social media urchins and their paymasters, especially that of Labour Party, have not hidden their support and sympathy for the sit-at-home and its criminal enforcers.
Severally and occasionally, they have downloaded, fabricated and peddled fake videos, pictures and stories about the sit-at-home incidents on social media to mislead people and portray Mbah’s tireless efforts as exercise in futility.
Since the declaration of the fake and illegal one week sit-at-home order by Simon Ekpa, which Mbah’s government, security agents and the people have aborted and nipped in the bud through concerted and collaborative efforts that led to the arrest and killings of the perpetrators in some parts of Enugu by security agents, the oppositions and their social media cohorts have been littering and bombarding the social media platforms with fake news and videos indicating that the ban of sit-at-home in Enugu has failed.
Analsying the comments, arguments and views of these opposition politicians and their social media bandits in Enugu on social media about the banned sit-at-home order in the state that is verifiable, it is undoubtedly clear that they have politicised and trivialised the banned sit-at-home order and are highly in supportive of it’s continuation at the detriment of the survival and wellbeing of the people.
That is why they are doing everything possible to stymie and sabotage Mbah government’s efforts in that direction.
Lest we have forgotten that before the elections, there was a trending video of masked ESN gunmen dancing, weilding guns and warning Nsukka people that any of them who voted against Labour Party candidates would be killed.
Unfortunately for them, Mbah’s government, the security agencies and the people know these and have remained undaunted and focused at ending the menace called sit-at-home by all means in the overall interest of the state and her people and as a roadmap for Mbah to fulfill his campaign promises to the people.
The resilience and determination of Mbah, security agencies, and the people in this direction are topnotch and unwavering.
One good thing about the unfolding events since Mbah banned the illegal sit-at-home order is that Enugu people have seen the kind of government and leadership the oppositions would have provided for them, had it been they mistakenly voted for them in the last elections. Maybe they would have handed the machinery of the state government to the perpetrators of the sit-at-home and use them to hunt and subdue perceived political opponents and critics.
This is possible considering the way they have been celebratory and sympathetic to the nefarious activities of the criminal enforcers of sit-at-home order in Enugu. It is possible considering the manner they have been behaving, writing and talking against the banned sit-sit-at-home, without providing alternative solution or way out of the anathema called sit-at-home order in Enugu State. It is not wrong saying and concluding that there is something the oppositions and their social media cohorts know and are benefitting from IPOB and their sit-at-home order in Enugu that they are not telling Ndi Enugu.
It is high time the security agents beamed searchlight on them and their co-travellers in the fight against sit-at-home in Enugu. Enough is enough. Non-state actors cannot be allowed to continue to hold Ndi Enugu to ransom with sit-at-home order that is of no benefit to any sincere and progressive people.
