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ON Friday morning, I headed to the Ring Road area of Ibadan on a two-fold mission: to buy bread at Foodco and withdraw some money at the Ring Road branch of Guarantee Trust Bank, the bank from which I received a mail the same day asking me to pay money it had already deducted from my account on January 24. Just like the story had been all week, the ATMS in the Orita Challenge area of Ibadan were not working. Like many Nigerians, I was in a dilemma over the new naira notes. I had N2,000 (old notes) but Foodco had already given notice of its intention to cease the collection of old notes by Friday evening in order to have time to take the ones in its possession to the bank. I had also received intelligence indicating that traders in Oja’ba, from which our foodstuff is usually sourced, were already scoffing at the old notes. Since it was just N2600 bread I was buying at Foodco, I decided to split the payment: I paid N2000 in cash and N600 via my ATM card. That done, I headed to GTB for some cash but guess what? The ATMs were down, and crowds of people were lamenting their woes. Those coming out of the bank said only old notes were available, a refrain I also heard in other banks.
We were soon joined by heavily-armed policemen who were also on a cash withdrawal mission. The policemen spoke like everyone else, expressing disappointment at not being able to withdraw their own money. I must have spent about 25 minutes in GTB when I left and surveyed other banks, eventually finding gold at the First Bank branch on Ring Road. The bank was dispensing new notes via its ATM! Staying on the queue for over an hour was like a little sacrifice—a big bottle of Eva water bought at the neighbouring Paris outlet lubricated the discussion of national issues with fellow cash seekers— and my joy knew no bounds when I eventually succeeded in withdrawing N20,000 in four installments, as the system dictated. Everybody who withdrew money rejoiced! It was a big battle, and I had to put in a word for a boy in school uniform whose mission was to withdraw money and pay for his WAEC exam before 1p.m!
I arrived home almost three hours after I had left, but I had the prized money in my possession. I had made up my mind that if I found any old note in our abode, even if it was N200, I must take it to the bank by Monday. Now, if I spent three hours trying to buy bread and withdraw cash, imagine what old people are going through at the moment trying to survive the crazy week before January 31 when, we are told, the old notes shall cease being legal tender. As I headed to Ring Road, I saw crowds of desperate motorists struggling to buy fuel at cut-throat prices. The atmosphere everywhere was chaotic! But regardless of the struggles I have detailed so far—you have probably had worse experience—there are Nigerians whose troubles are way beyond struggling to get fuel, new notes and PVCs; people for whom leaving home may be a death sentence! I speak of our compatriots in the South-East where life has become one long nightmare because of the activities of terrorists masquerading as freedom fighters.
This week, Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide took a bold step by placing a $50, 000 bounty on a Finland-based devil stoking the terror in the South-East, one Simon Ekpa. For a long time, this fellow has caused untold anguish in the South-East with the Monday holiday he decreed in the name of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, making a mincemeat of his own people in the name of Biafra. In asking the people to ignore his latest sit-at-home order, the Secretary-General of Ohanaeze, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, declared Ekpa the number one enemy of the Igbo nation. Isiguzoro said: “Ndigbo has a bounty reward of $50, 000 for anyone who has useful information on how Simon Ekpa will be apprehended for his extradition and prosecution in Nigeria…over his criminalities, incitement of violent killings, and burning of public properties in the name of self-determination.” He added: “Igbo residents in Finland who had earlier disowned his actions and activities should aid the Nigerian government and INTERPOL in arresting Simon Ekpa in order to stabilise the South-East and rescue the zone from the nefarious activities of his gang members masquerading as Biafra agitators.” I concur.
If you don’t know who Simon Ekpa is, just look him up on the social media. Almost on a daily basis, this fellow causes untold pain in the South-East through his incendiary comments and decrees. He is chief commander, motivator and instigator of senseless violence in the South-East. While no sensible Nigerian can fault the South-East people for seeking to protect themselves from the murderous onslaughts of nomadic herders, the fact is not in dispute that Ekpa’s army, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), is a terror outfit committing far worse atrocities than those perpetrated by herders and biased security agents. The ESN blood merchants beat, torture, rape and behead people at will on a daily basis. If you did not remember any other case, you would at least remember last week’s beheading of the sole administrator of Ideato North local council of Imo State, Chris Ohizu. Nigerians cannot have forgotten the killing, in May last year, of Master Warrant Officer (MWO) Audu M. Linus and his bride, Private Gloria Matthew, on their way to their traditional wedding. Matthew hailed from Nkwerre Local Council of Imo, but that, as the Nigerian Army pointed out, did not prevail on the sensibility of the dissidents. Is looting people’s shops Biafla?
Living in the darkness of his Finland residence, Ekpa daily aims darts of agony into the South-East sun. He pauperises people by making them stay at home every Monday, punishing dissidence with gruesome death. He obtains emotional security from his own women but keeps making fellow men wifeless. His “Biafran agitators” gang rape Igbo girls, loot Igbo shops and set Igbo men and women on fire. They abduct their own brothers/sisters and, branding them traitors to the Biafran cause, behead them for sport. If the people dare venture out of their homes to exchange their old notes for new ones on Monday, the freedom fighters will kill them! Simon Ekpa should be made to book a date with the hangman.
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