The Abia State Police Command Friday deployed its officers and men to parts of Abia in a show-of-force to demonstrate its readiness to quell any lawless acts, following the order by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) for residents in the entire Southeast geo-political to sit-at-home Saturday.
In Anambra State, the Police Command warned against violence as a result of the order.
And in Enugu State, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abubakar Mohammed, Friday called on the people of the state to go about their normal businesses without fear of molestation.
The Police team, comprising mainly mobile policemen and women, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), drove round Umuahia and other areas in trucks, chanting songs.
The command’s spokesman, Geoffrey Ogbonna, explained that the command was poised to forestall any act that could threaten the peace and security of the state.
He stated that the show-of-force was also carried out in Aba, the economic hub of the state, as well as other major towns and villages and called on members of the public to disregard the MASSOB order and go about their lawful businesses without any fear of molestation.
He added that officers and men of the command were on red alert and keeping 24-hour surveillance in all the nooks and crannies of Abia.
“The command warns MASSOB and any other group that would engage in any act capable of breaching the peace to steer clear as anyone caught would be made to face the full wrath of the law,” Ogbonna said.
Also speaking on the MASSOB order, the Special Adviser to Governor Theodore Orji on Security, Navy Capt. Chris Osondu (rtd), described the agitation by the group as “unrealistic.”
Osondu advised the leadership of MASSOB to work towards the unity and development of the country rather than dissipate energy and resources pursuing an obsolete and unrealistic project.
He urged residents of the state, market men and women, as well as shop owners to disregard the order and open for business today, assuring that security agencies in the state would be alert to deal with any acts of lawlessness and criminality.
Anambra Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Emeka Chukwuemeka, asked members of the public to ignore the order and go about their lawful business, saying the police in the state would not spare anybody using the order to disturb the existing peace in the state.
Chukwuemeka said the command would ensure that orderliness was maintained, stressing that the full weight of the law would be applied against anybody caught causing breach of the peace.
A statement from the spokesman of the Enugu State police command, Ebere Amaraizu, said the commissioner of police assured the public that nobody or group would be allowed to disturb their peace.
He also said the command had empowered its operatives to apprehend and prosecute any person or group found disturbing the peace of the citizens under any guise.
The police spokesman advised members of the public to inform the command’s operatives about any attempt to disturb their peace through the following phone numbers: 08032003702, 08075390883 and 08086671202.
But MASSOB’s Director of Information, Uchenna Madu, told NAN that the group would go ahead with the order.
He, however, said it was not aimed at causing trouble, but that the day should be used to pray for the souls of people who lost their lives in recent times in the northern parts of the country.
The group had claimed that the order was to enable the people of the area to mourn their kit and kin killed by Boko Haram insurgents in northern parts of the country.
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