The Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) has shifted the set dates for campaign rallies in the southeast region by a day. The new dates for the political event are now Tuesday November 21 2022 and Tuesday January 30th 2023.
Driving the news
The political event to publicize APC’s presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was initially scheduled for a Monday, when the five southeastern states in Nigeria observe a mandatory sit-at-home order in solidarity with their leader, who is in the custody of the federal government.
- According to the Punch newspaper, a source in the campaign council disclosed that the APC had “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 Chief Spokesman of the ruling party’s PCC, Festus Keyamo, also confirmed that the change of date has nothing to do with the assumed threat of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) nor the Eastern Security Network (ESN).
Why it matters
Defiance of the mandatory sit-at-home order that seems to have been relaxed in the past few weeks has destroyed the lives and properties of the violators. As such, there were speculations that the conduct of a political rally and the participation of the party’s faithful on Monday is a daring action to the perpetrators of the violence in the southeastern region of the country.
In case you missed it
IPOB first declared a sit-at-home action in the southeastern region of Nigeria in solidarity to the court appearances of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. IPOB then imposed a sit-at-home order every Monday until the release of Nnamdi Kanu.
Southeast has also observed the defiance order on special circumstances, such as October 1st, Nigeria’s Independence Day, visit of the country’s President to the region, etc.
Although IPOB has ended the sit-at-home order, unknown gunmen have continued to wrought violence in different parts of the southeastern region of Nigeria to ensure compliance with the reversed order. State governments and support groups have also condemned the directive but to no avail.
Last month, an appeal court acquitted IPOB’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu of all charges against him, but the federal government said it will “consider all available options open to us on the judgement”.