Anglican bishops end their conference and flee Akwa as Ipob day of protest approaches

ANGLICAN bishops attending a five day meeting in the Anambra State capital Awka have had to flee for as a result of a planned sit-at-home protest declared by the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) due to hold on September 23.

 

Ipob have declared September 23 as their international day of protest during which it plans to hold marches demonstrating against the continued detention of their leader Nnamdi Kanu. Ipob spokesman Emma Powerful, said the worldwide protests will take place in all the countries across the globe except Nigeria, where church services will be held in place of protests.

 

At the moment, the Church of Nigeria's Anglican Communion is holding a five day retreat in Awka, which was due to end on Friday but it has suddenly been called off. Some 170 bishops were attending the meeting and they have now left for fear of becoming trapped in the city when the protests start.

 

Most Reverend Nicolas Okoh, the primate of the Anglican Communion, had earlier in the conference expressed fear that the bishops could be trapped in the state should their meeting go on as scheduled. He had asked the state governor Chief Willie Obiano, to prevail on Ipob members to shelve their Friday protest so that the bishops’ conference could go on.

 

Adding that the Ipob sit-at-home protest would hamper their activities and movement, Reverend Okoh implored the pro-Biafran agitators to postpone their action until after the end of the bishops’ conference. Ipob had threatened that markets, banks and other institutions would  be shut down on Friday, while movement would be restricted as a protest against the continued detention of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

 

Reverend Okoh said: “We are not against whatever their agitations are but we ask them to wait until we leave Awka on Friday. If they go on to carry out that protest, we may be trapped in Anambra as the Niger Bridge is the only exit from Anambra State."

One delegate added: “There was no assurance that we were protected. We are human, so we had to put our heads together and decided to cut short the conference."

 

During the summit, the Anglican bishops had appealed to the Niger Delta militants to stop the bombing of oil facilities in their region in the interest of the country. They then appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to convene a roundtable meeting with the agitators in order to address their grievances.