The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu has shifted his campaign rallies in Anambra and Imo States from Mondays.
Bellnewsonline.com reported that the APC Presidential Campaign Council had earlier said Tinubu will hold a campaign rally and a stakeholders’ engagement in Imo State on Monday, November, 21.
While on Monday, January 30, the campaign train will move to Anambra, the home state of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi.
The decision of the APC and Tinubu to hold their presidential campaigns on Mondays goes against the sit-at-home order issued by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South East.
In a revised campaign timetable released by the campaign council on Friday night, the rally and zonal stakeholders’ meeting earlier scheduled to hold in Imo state on Monday, November 21, was shifted to Tuesday.
While the rally scheduled to hold in Anambra state on Monday, January 30, was also moved to Tuesday.
However, in a chat with The Punch, a source in the APC campaign council said the dates for the campaign rallies scheduled to hold in Imo and Anambra states have been shifted.
The APC chieftain claimed that the ruling party has shifted the dates for the campaign rallies in the region as a result of the mandatory sit-at-home order issued by IPOB.
He said that the APC did not consider that “Monday is a dreaded period” for any resident to move around in some areas of the South East.
The source said, “If you drive out anyhow in the South-East on a Monday, it is at owner’s risk. The South-East is not a place where you can just veer into and gather people in the name of politics.
“So, we have to make that necessary amendment in dates, not necessarily because of possible confrontation, but to make people willing to troop out for the rallies.”
The Nnamdi Kanu-led IPOB declared the sit-at-home order in August 2021 to protest and demand the release of their leader, who is standing trial on treason and terrorism charges by the Nigerian government.
Violators of the sit-at-home order have been victims of violence and killings by gunmen in southeast states on Mondays. Vehicular movements and commercial activities are on halt in compliance with IPOB’s order.
However, the pro-Biafra group had come out to declare an end to the sit-at-home and the violence, but this has done little or nothing to stop the violence and killing in the region.