The self-proclaimed "Prime Minister of the Biafra Government in Exile," Simon Ekpa, has said he will not heed calls from incarcerated leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to put an end to the sit-at-home currently being enforced across the southeastern region every Monday.
Ekpa revealed this during a special episode of 90MinutesAfrica hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo on Tuesday.
"I won't listen to Nnamdi Kanu's instructions to end sit-at-home," the Finland-based pro-Biafra agitator stated. "I will only listen to him not just when he becomes a freeman, but he has to come to Finland to tell me face to face," he said.
In July 2023, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, in a letter read to the media by his special counsel, Aloy Ajimakor, instructed Simon Ekpa to "desist from calling any sit-at-home forthwith." The IPOB leader further stated that anyone who continues the enforcement of sit-at-home in the southeast is not his disciple.
However, the self-proclaimed "Prime Minister of the Biafra Government in Exile" said that the only condition for him to listen to such an instruction is that Nnamdi Kanu "has to come to Finland and sit one-on-one with me."
"That is my condition," Mr. Ekpa declared. "Even if they bring him out today and he stays in Nigeria and says Simon Ekpa, stop, I'm not going to stop," he vowed.
Simon Ekpa explained that the sit-at-home exercise was a pathway to Biafra freedom. He insisted it has succeeded in "crushing the economy of Nigeria, delegitimizing the Nigerian government in Biafra land and demonstrating that the people don't listen to Nigerian authorities anymore."
"We are using four different mechanisms to pursue the freedom of Biafra," he stated.
"The political, diplomatic, self-defense or arms struggle and the civil disobedience approach," he said. "These are the four approaches we are using to delegitimize and fight Nigeria, and they are working perfectly."
Responding to criticisms that the sit-at-home is taking a toll on traders, students, and other residents of the region, Simon Ekpa argued that it was a price worth paying to achieve a better future for the people.
"The traders have a better business ahead of them, and the students will have better schools to attend in the future," he insisted. "What we are doing is a price they have to be paid for freedom. Freedom does not come easy. We are going to bring an alternative that will work for them. So they have to pay the price of not going to school if they have to."