The banned Indigenous People of Biafra group announced a one-day lockdown across five southeastern states on Monday, February 2, protesting a market closure by a local governor and demanding the release of their jailed leader Nnamdi Kanu.
The directive, issued late Sunday, urges residents in Anambra, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo to stay home and halt all business in support of traders at Onitsha’s main market, shuttered for a week by Anambra Governor Chukwuma Soludo over persistent Monday boycotts.
IPOB, which advocates for an independent Biafran republic, blasted Soludo for what it termed economic sabotage orchestrated with federal authorities in Abuja to suppress Igbo commerce and the separatist cause.
“The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), under the leadership of Nnamdi Kanu, hereby declares a Biafra-wide solidarity strike, a complete lockdown of all economic activities across Igboland and wider Biafran territories, on Monday, February 2, 2026,” the group said in a statement.
It added: “This action is a direct response to the closure of the Onitsha Main Market by the Anambra State Governor and threats of further punitive measures against traders for observing the Monday sit-at-home.”
The weekly sit-at-homes, ongoing since July 2021, stem from solidarity with Kanu, detained since his 2021 rendition from Kenya and facing treason charges tied to his agitation for secession.
Soludo has decried the protests as economically ruinous, vowing stricter enforcement against non-compliance, but IPOB insists participation is voluntary and accuses the governor of escalating hardships.
“On Monday, February 2, 2026, we call on all Biafrans across Anambra, Abia, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi and beyond to observe this solidarity strike peacefully,” the statement urged, emphasizing lawful conduct while indoors.
No immediate comment came from Anambra officials on the latest call, which risks deepening tensions in a region scarred by the 1967-1970 Biafran war that claimed over a million lives.
IPOB, designated a terrorist organization by Nigeria in 2017, maintains the boycotts are peaceful expressions of dissent, though critics link them to sporadic violence by armed enforcers.
