Security forces locked down the vast Onitsha Main Market in the southeast on Tuesday, deploying armoured vehicles and troops to uphold a one-week shutdown decreed by Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo after merchants flouted a government ban on weekly sit-at-home protests.
The heavy presence, including police, soldiers, and joint task forces, cordoned off entrances with barricades and patrols, stranding traders outside shuttered stalls as sporadic clashes erupted amid the enforcement.
Soludo, who toured the site Monday to confirm the defiance, branded the ongoing observance—linked to separatist calls for the release of Biafran activist Nnamdi Kanu—as deliberate sabotage crippling the economy.
“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 framed the closure as safeguarding compliant residents, warning: “The closure is a protective measure for law-abiding citizens,” and threatened to prolong it to a month if violations persist.
Officials estimate the Monday ritual inflicts eight billion naira in weekly losses on Anambra alone, and nearly 20 billion naira across the South East, hampering trade and services in a region scarred by unrest.
The Indigenous People of Biafra, which has promoted the sit-at-home despite disavowing violence, rebuffed the order and encouraged reopening, labeling Soludo’s stance “disappointing and unacceptable.”
