|
Listen to article
|
As the October 15, 2024, deadline draws near, there is growing apprehension in Anambra State following Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s insistence that the weekly Monday sit-at-home must cease. The announcement has stirred unease across various sectors, with stakeholders unsure how the situation will unfold.
During his visit to the commercial city of Onitsha, the governor threatened to seal any shop or plaza closed on Mondays in the name of sit-at-home.
Many traders who spoke yesterday said they will obey the order, provided adequate security is put in place in the markets.
Soludo had lamented the continued boycott of work on Mondays in the South East, arguing that the zone loses an estimated N19.6 billion every Monday.
Recall that the leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, had in August 2021, introduced sit-at-home order every Monday across the South East to pressure the Nigerian government to release its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The group later suspended the order, in preference for it to be implemented only on days Kanu would appear in court.
But despite the suspension, residents of the five South East states of Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia and Anambra have been forced to observe the Monday sit-at-home order out of fear.
Read also: Soludo Hasn’t Declared To Contest For 2nd Term – State Govt
Although IPOB had repeatedly disowned the Monday sit-at-home across the region, saying that those who still enforce the order were criminals attempting to blackmail the Biafra agitators, a faction of the group led by Finland-based Simon Ekpa, has continued to declare the sit-at-home in the region, with threats to kill and maim the violators.
Since then, enforcers of sit-at-home had caused markets, schools, banks, transporters, and other businesses to remain closed every Monday, and some people who violated had ugly stories to tell.
State governors in the zone who attempted to end the sit-at-home order in their states by government fiat also met some resistance, although with time, skeletal services began to take place in some cities.
