He spoke at the Investiture ofJasper Nduagwuike as the 16th President of the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, yesterday.

Enyinnaya Abaribe, the Senate Minority Leader, yesterday, bemoaned the negative effect of Monday sit-at-home on the economy of the Southeast region.

Abaribe also revealed that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, told him when he and Senator Ike Ekweremadu visited him in detention, that he did not order the Monday sit-at-home currently being observed in the Southeast.

Speaking at the Investiture ofJasper Nduagwuike as the 16th President of the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, yesterday, Abaribe said that it was unfortunate that businesses are relocating to other regions as a result of insecurity in the region.

“What is happening in Southeast is a tragedy. Every Monday people sit at home. IPOB has said times without number that they are not the ones enforcing the order. We don’t know who is enforcing it neither does it seem like we have a way to solve it. 

“I went with Ike Ekweremadu and two Bishops to the DSS to see Nnamdi Kanu and he told us ‘I have never said people should sit at home’. I told him that nobody believes you. Because people have said they don’t like it, but they keep sitting at home. There is no way we are going to survive like this. You are sitting at home and the people who you are doing these things for are in Lagos and Abuja and they don’t care. And you are here killing your own.

“Sit at home is killing the economy of Southeast. Most businesses are now moving out to other regions. Insecurity in Southeast is the biggest problem we are facing now.  Even if you are seeking a separate country, why would you destroy your own place with your hands. You need to have a viable country and not a scattered one. 

“We need to make the Southeast become like Catalonia  who despite seeking independence is still the economic capital of Spain. Insecurity is the biggest problem of the Southeast and the earlier we tackle it, the better for us,” Abaribe said.

In his opening remark, Nduagwuike who pledged to work for the repositioning of the chamber said that his administration would ensure the construction of a befitting trade fair complex in Enugu State.

He said that since every effort to get the Federal Government to build the complex seemed to have failed, the chamber, under him, would take up the construction of the complex.

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