Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, has ordered the immediate closure of the Onitsha Main Market for one week following the continued observance of the Monday sit-at-home by traders.
The order was given on Monday in Onitsha after the governor visited the market and observed that traders had again failed to open for business, despite government directives to resume normal activities
The move, Soludo said, is part of a renewed effort to reassert government authority over economic activities in the South-East.
The governor described the sit-at-home as a long-standing threat to economic life in the region.
“The enemy is the long-standing, fear-enforced Monday sit-at-home order, a ghostly mandate from non-state actors that has strangled businesses and normalised weekly Monday sit-at-home for years,” he said.
He noted that despite repeated assurances of improved security and appeals to reclaim public spaces, traders at the market once again kept their shops closed.
According to the governor, the continued absence of traders reflected a deep-seated climate of fear that the government could no longer ignore.
He warned that failure to reopen the market after the one-week shutdown would attract stiffer sanctions.
“You either decide that you are going to trade here or you go elsewhere. I am very serious about this,” he added.”.
Following the directive, a joint task force comprising the police, army, and other security agencies was deployed to the market to enforce the closure.
The Anambra State Government has been taking steps to end the long-running Monday sit-at-home directive attributed to non-state actors in the South-East.
Last week, the state government banned Monday school closures and ordered all education workers to resume duties immediately or risk losing 20% of their salaries.
According to the circular, all teaching and non-teaching staff are required to report to schools and offices every Monday without exception, with supervising officers directed to enforce full compliance.
The government said the decision marked the end of what it described as a protracted Monday sit-at-home in Anambra State.
The Monday sit-at-home order in Anambra and the wider South-East region began in August 2021 when the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) announced that residents should stay at home every Monday as a civil protest to pressure the Nigerian government for the release of IPOB’s detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who was facing trial on terrorism-related charges.
A report by SBM Intelligence says the sit-at-home shutdowns enforced in the Southeast have inflicted massive economic damage, with losses estimated at about N7.6 trillion over four years.
