Commercial activities disrupted in South-East over IPOB daylight curfew

Commercial and other activities were disrupted Tuesday, in the entire Southeast zone of Nigeria, following a two-day sit-at-home order.

A video and voice note circulated on social media for over a week, warning residents of the South-East zone of Nigeria, to remain indoors on October 21 and 22, saying that those days have been declared sit-at-home.

The voice note also threatened to deal with anyone, who fails to comply with the directive saying it remains sacrosanct.

This development generated panic and chaos, in the entire South-East, as all engagements fixed for Monday and Tuesday were rescheduled.

The sit-at-home order was strictly adhered to on Monday and Tuesday, including in Umuahia, capital of Abia State, Enugu and Abakaliki, State capitals of Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi States respectively, which previously disregarded the usual Monday sit-at-home order.

Schools, commercial banks and major markets, including Ariaria International, Eke Oha Shopping Centre in Aba, Abia State, Onitsha main market in Anambra State and Ogbete market in Enugu did not open for business for the two days.

This is as commercial tricycle operators (Keke) and other transporters withdrew their services for two days, leading to the desertion of major roads in the entire region.

Several combined teams of soldiers and policemen were seen patrolling the cities to stop criminal elements, who always take advantage of such situations to attack innocent citizens.

Read also: Enugu Govt again, threatens to sanction schools, banks, businesses obeying sit-at-home order

Indigenous People of Biafra in a statement obtained by BusinessDay, Monday evening denied involvement in the declaration of the two-day sit-at-home order, which started on Monday 21 to Tuesday 22 of October, 2024.

The pro-Biafra group emphasised that it makes a public statement whenever it declares such orders and urged the public to disregard the order.

Emma Powerful, said, “IPOB did not declare any sit-at-home order on October 21 and 22. The illegal order is from criminal elements and Finland-based infiltrators who are not our members.

“We urged our people to ignore the order and go about their normal business on those days. IPOB does not want to talk about it because we don’t want to create panic over the matter.

“Biafrans must understand that IPOB does not declare unnecessary sit-at-home. We have since suspended it and anybody declaring it is a criminal element that should be ignored.

“We didn’t want to talk about it again in order to avoid giving undue popularity to the inconsequential order from Finland-based infiltrators.”

However, the new directive by IPOB was not heeded, as people stayed indoors on Tuesday as well to avoid being caught in the crossfire.