They say when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. But in Nigeria’s Southeast, it is no longer the grass that suffers — it is the people. Our mothers. Our fathers. Our children. The ordinary man who only wants to open his shop and sell his wares. The woman who wants to take her sick child to the hospital. The student who only wants to learn. All now caught in a cycle of fire and blood, held hostage not by ideology but by fear.
A chilling report by SB Morgen Intelligence lays bare the human cost of the sit-at-home orders originally declared by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). In four short but bloody years — from 2021 to 2025 — no fewer than 776 people have been killed in 332 separate attacks linked to the enforcement of the order. This is not just a statistic. These are human lives snuffed out in their prime. Families torn apart. Futures buried under the weight of bullets and silence.
Imo and Anambra States are bleeding the most.
Imo, once hailed as the Eastern Heartland, now beats like a war drum — registering 130 incidents and 332 deaths. Anambra, the Light of the Nation, dims under the weight of 94 attacks and 202 deaths. Together, these two states account for nearly 70% of all fatalities linked to the sit-at-home saga. That is over 500 lives, lost not to natural disasters or foreign invasions, but to a self-inflicted wound that festers deeper with each passing day.
A Protest Turned Pyre
Originally birthed as a nonviolent civil disobedience to press for the release of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, the sit-at-home directive has now mutated into something darker — a Frankenstein of its original intent. What began as a symbol of resistance has become a scourge of repression.
In May 2022, 14 civilians were massacred in Anambra for allegedly defying the order. In April 2023, a deadly clash between the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and federal forces rocked Imo. By May 2024, a deadly ambush in Aba claimed 11 lives, including five soldiers and six civilians. And by March 2025, the Enugu Police Headquarters came under violent assault. Each year brings more blood than the last. In fact, 2024 alone witnessed 133 incidents and 313 deaths — a threefold increase from the previous year.
We are no longer counting days; we are counting bodies.
Fear, Not Freedom, Governs the People
The irony is thick and bitter. While IPOB champions the freedom of the Igbo people, the people themselves are prisoners of fear. According to the report, 82.6% complied with the sit-at-home order in 2021, but only 29% actually supported it. That means more than two-thirds of the people who stayed indoors did so out of fear — not out of belief, not out of solidarity, but because they were afraid of being the next target. This isn’t democracy. It isn’t activism. It is a reign of terror under the guise of liberation.
Government’s Iron Fist or Open Hand?
The federal government, on its part, has not fared any better. Operation Python Dance, mass arrests, military crackdowns — all have done more to fan the flames than quench them. Instead of building trust, the state’s response has often deepened the divide, giving birth to suspicion and fueling underground sympathies for the separatist cause.
The result? A vicious cycle: IPOB attacks — the military responds — civilians suffer — sympathy for IPOB grows — IPOB attacks again. And round and round we go, as if cursed to spin forever in this cruel merry-go-round of violence.
Broken Borders, Broken Systems
Both Imo and Anambra share another tragic similarity: porous borders, poor coordination among security forces, and a governance vacuum ripe for exploitation. In Anambra, the report reveals how urban density and commercial vibrancy make the state a soft target for recruitment and attacks. Imo, on the other hand, remains the emotional and symbolic nerve centre of the agitation, magnifying every wound, every slight, every blood-soaked street into a rallying cry.
When Will Enough Be Enough?
This is no longer about Biafra. It is not about Nigeria either. It is about lives. About our people. About a generation growing up in a theatre of violence where the price of defying an order is death, and the reward for speaking out is silence — often permanent.
What is needed now is not just security operations or political posturing. We need genuine dialogue, community rebuilding, and a bold confrontation of the root causes: marginalisation, economic strangulation, youth unemployment, and political exclusion. These are not just statistics in a report; they are the very air that IPOB breathes.
To IPOB, the message is clear: you cannot liberate a people by killing them. To the Nigerian government: you cannot win peace by instilling more fear. And to the Southeast political class, it’s time to stop dancing on the graves of your people in the name of power and start standing up for them.
A Call to Conscience
How many more sons must we bury before we say, “Enough is enough?”
How many more Mondays must be marred by silence before we reclaim our markets, our roads, our lives?
If 776 deaths do not shake us into action, what will?
Let history not remember us as the generation that folded its arms while the East bled. Let it remember us as the people who chose dialogue over destruction, courage over cowardice, and life over fear.
The blood has flowed long enough. It is time for healing.
Stanley Ugagbe is a Social Commentator. He can be reached via stanleyakomeno@gmail.com
