Soludo shuts another Anambra market over sit-at-home

Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has ordered the temporary closure of the New Auto Spare Parts Market in Nnewi, the state’s second-largest commercial hub.

The market is popularly known as Nkwo Nnewi.

Evarist Uba, the special adviser to Mr Soludo on trade and markets, in a video clip circulating on Facebook, announced that the market would remain shut for one week, beginning from Monday (today).

Mr Uba explained the closure was because traders were complying with a sit-at-home directive often enforced by a faction of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

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The special adviser, who visited the market on Monday, accompanied by other government officials and security operatives, expressed dissatisfaction that shop owners did not open for business despite the governor’s earlier order against the Monday sit-at-home in the state.

He told the traders that their failure to open shops amounted to economic sabotage and that the market would not open for at least one week.

“Because of this recalcitrant attitude, Onitsha Main Market was shut down and reopened on 2 February and has been on since then.

“For this sabotage that you people have exhibited today, we are going to keep this market closed till next Monday. That’s the order from the governor,” he said.

‘Market closure may be extended’

The Commissioner for Information in Anambra State, Law Mefor, confirmed the temporary closure of the market in a statement on Monday.

Mr Mefor, who was part of the government delegation to the market on Monday, asked traders and buyers to stay away until the one-week closure expires.

“The market may face further closure if compliance is not substantial by next Monday, when the market reopens,” he said.

Not the first time

This is not the first time Mr Soludo has shut a market in Anambra State for obeying IPOB’s sit-at-home order.

On 26 January, the governor ordered the closure of Onitsha Main Market for one week due to traders’ compliance with the IPOB sit-at-home directive.

The market was reopened on 2 February.

Shortly after the reopening of the market, the IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, who is serving a life sentence for terrorism, announced the “total cancellation” of the sit-at-home directive in the South-east.

IPOB had declared the Monday sit-at-home directive across the South-east in August 2021.

The illegal directive was to pressure the Nigerian government to release Mr Kanu, who was facing terrorism charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja at the time.

The group, in August 2021, suspended the weekly directive for the first time, limiting it to days Mr Kanu appeared in court.

However, residents of Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia and Anambra states continued to observe the directive largely out of fear.

Gunmen, linked to a faction of IPOB led by Simon Ekpa, who often enforced the illegal directive, have killed many residents and punished others for flouting the directive.

IPOB repeatedly distanced itself from the continued enforcement, insisting that those behind it were criminals exploiting the group’s name.

Despite this, Mr Ekpa, a Finland-based controversial Biafra agitator, persisted in declaring sit-at-home in the South-east.

For the second time, Mr Kanu, in July 2023, through his lawyer Aloy Ejimakor, directed Mr Ekpa to halt the action. Mr Ekpa dismissed the directive as fake, insisting the order would continue unless Mr Kanu personally addressed him in Finland.

Efforts by Igbo leaders, including Enugu Governor Peter Mbah, Anambra Governor Mr Soludo and Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, to end the sit-at-home yielded limited results.

While the sit-at-home has largely disappeared in Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi states, it persists in Anambra and Imo.

Mr Kanu was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism in November, while Mr Ekpa received a six-year prison sentence in Finland for similar offences which he committed in South-east Nigeria.