Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo ordered the closure of Nigeria’s bustling Onitsha Main Market for a week on Monday, citing traders’ persistent adherence to a banned Monday sit-at-home as “economic sabotage,” a move swiftly denounced by separatist group IPOB as an assault on legitimate civil protest.
Security forces enforced the shutdown, barricading entrances and dispersing merchants at the sprawling commercial hub in the southeast, which has long been a flashpoint for the weekly observance tied to demands for the release of detained Biafran leader Nnamdi Kanu.
Soludo’s administration framed the action as essential to revive economic activity, with the governor warning of escalating penalties for non-compliance.
“The government cannot stand by while a few individuals willfully undermine public safety and disregard official directives meant to restore normalcy,” Soludo said. “This is plain economic sabotage. We are not going to allow this.”
He added: “If the market does not reopen for business after this one-week shutdown, it will be sealed for a month. And so on and so forth.”
“You either decide that you are going to trade here or you go elsewhere. I am very serious about this,” the governor stated.
The directive follows the market’s closure last Monday despite state efforts to end the practice, which originated amid separatist unrest but has been deemed obsolete given purported security gains.
“The frustration in Igboland is deep”
IPOB, the Indigenous People of Biafra, rebuked Soludo for threatening citizens’ rights, insisting the sit-at-home is a voluntary expression of solidarity with Kanu, not coercion.
“Let it be stated clearly and without ambiguity: Anambra is not a military barracks. The people are not tenants in their own land,” said IPOB spokesman Emma Powerful in a statement.
“No governor has the lawful power to compel free citizens to open their businesses or move about against their will, especially when their action is a peaceful, non-violent expression of conscience,” he added.
Powerful described the observance as “civil disobedience, not terrorism,” rooted in “deep” frustration over Kanu’s “unlawful detention,” and cautioned that any enforcement squads would “cross a red line.”
“The frustration in Igboland is deep. The anger is justified. The pain is historic. And the Monday sit-at-home is a token expression of that collective burden,” he said.
Powerful urged Soludo to prioritize justice, including Kanu’s release, rather than “punish, provoke, or subjugate” his people, warning: “Let him not start what he cannot finish, because history has never been kind to leaders who attack their own people to impress external masters.”
