There is tension in Anambra State as traders and leaders of the Onitsha Main Market face a dilemma on Monday when the government will reopen trading activities.
This is due to the threat issued by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra last Friday against the resumption.
In a statement issued by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, the pro-Biafran group had called on traders, transporters, banks, schools, civil servants and other sectors across the Southeast to observe what it described as a peaceful solidarity sit-at-home on Monday.
The group said the order was a response to Governor Charles Soludo’s week-long closure of the market.
Soludo shut down the market because of the observance of the Monday sit-at-home.
Powerful said that decision was “designed to break the spirit of peaceful civil disobedience that has highlighted the injustice of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s continued detention despite sham proceedings.”
However, the Anambra State Commissioner for Information, Dr Law Mefor, on Saturday, said the enforcement of the sit-at-home order had transitioned from a political protest to a criminal enterprise. Mefor, while quoting the governor’s remark during a meeting with market leaders in Awka on Friday, declared that all markets and shops across the state would remain open on every working day.
He noted that those enforcing the sit-at-home were largely non-indigenes and warned that “extreme measures” would be deployed if defiance persisted.
According to him, Soludo convened the meeting to address the closure of the Onitsha Main Market and the long-standing Monday sit-at-home that had disrupted commerce in the region.
Traders to sign attendance register
According to a statement shared by Mefor, the Chairman of the Onitsha Main Market, Mr Chijioke Okpalugo, while responding at the meeting, pledged that traders would resume on Monday.
The market leaders were also said to have called for “visible and proactive security presence” to protect traders and customers. Two audio clips said to have been recorded by market leaders and obtained by Sunday PUNCH gave further insight into agreements reached on the reopening of the market at the meeting.
The clips were reportedly shared with traders via WhatsApp to ensure compliance.
Our correspondents confirmed the authenticity of the clips through a high ranking official.
In the first clip, a market leader, who spoke Igbo, disclosed that attendance registers would be introduced across all market lines and warned that traders who failed to comply with the directive risked losing their shops.
According to him, Soludo promised to deploy security operatives in strategic locations on every market day to guarantee safety.
The official warned that failure to resume trading would attract severe sanctions.
“He said anyone who does not come to the market risks having their shop ownership revoked, and such a person would be told how much to pay before ownership can be regained,” he added. He further disclosed that the governor announced plans to demolish and reconstruct the market within three years, alongside a return to the original master plan.
“He instructed us, the market leaders, to hold a meeting and communicate our decision to him, as he intends to begin implementing everything he has outlined immediately,” the official said.
The leader cautioned that the existing market closure could be extended if traders failed to resume by Monday, February 2.
Appealing directly to traders, the market leader urged compliance with the directive, warning that attendance would be strictly monitored.
“Please, I am appealing and begging everyone to come to the market and open their shops for business. Do not later say you were not informed,” he said.
“Also, do not come to tell me, ‘Chairman, please mark that I came to the market,’ because I will not do that. As it stands, we are all affected by these decisions.”
He added that officials of the local government would supervise compliance. Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, Mefor warned that traders who failed to reopen their shops as directed would be identified and sanctioned.
“By Monday, we’ll know those who still insist on staying at home. That’s why the governor ordered that every shop must be opened. If it is not opened, you are a saboteur,” he said.
“If you don’t open your shop, you’re part of economic sabotage because there is no insecurity to justify the continued lockdown of Onitsha every Monday.”
The information commissioner alleged that a section of Onitsha traders, whom he claimed were IPOB members, were behind the prolonged sit-at-home compliance in the market.
He confirmed that the state government would revoke shops belonging to traders who continued to observe the IPOB order.
“We’ll take note of shops that don’t open on Mondays and revoke them. We will revoke them and compensate the owners. They can go and form an IPOB market somewhere else.
“The market will reopen on Monday. The plan is a complete security lockdown for Onitsha — not just the main market. The army, police, civil defence and our own Agunechemba are all fully deployed,” he said.
Dismissing claims of insecurity, Mefor insisted that the market had never been without security.
He noted that the Onitsha Merchants Association maintained its own internal security.
“Even the Onitsha Merchants itself has about 150 security agents they pay monthly. They are fully armed. So the market has never been under insecurity, except that a section of traders who belong to IPOB are forcing others not to trade on Mondays,” he said.
Mefor said the state government had moved beyond the sit-at-home issue, announcing that reconstruction of the market would commence immediately. Describing the crisis as long-standing, Ogbonnia noted that it had persisted for more than a decade despite several interventions.
“It is a protracted issue which has been happening for over 10 years. We have had dialogue with IPOB members, various organisations and stakeholders have intervened, but all interventions have failed,” he said.
Ogbonnia further argued that the issue involving Kanu could not be resolved through the courts alone, calling on the Federal Government to adopt a political approach.
Meanwhile, the Imo State Police Command said it had put adequate security in place to prevent a breakdown of law and order in the state over the threat by IPOB, which extended the sit-at-home order across the region.
The command’s spokesperson, Henry Okoye, in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, urged the people of the state to disregard the threat and go about their businesses peacefully.
Punch newspaper
