Tension in Anambra as govt suspends sit-at-home order

Anambra State is facing rising tension after the government banned the Monday sit-at-home order imposed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The ban has caused unease among residents, some of whom sympathise with IPOB’s “civil disobedience”.

The tension is also fuelled by IPOB’s resistance to the government’s directive.

After an executive retreat held last week, the state government announced the end of the Monday sit-at-home order.

It ordered workers and businesses to open on Mondays and warned that anyone who continues to observe the sit-at-home would face sanctions.

The state government had also promised to set up a task force to implement the directive.

Very Nigerian recently linked the lingering sit-at-home disruptions to the economic and fiscal downturn in the South-East region.

Anambra State had proposed N757 billion for its 2026 fiscal year. The amount is the smallest compared to other states in the region. Of the amount, it intends to raise N60 billion internally, about 12.7 per cent of the budget.

Many had doubted the state’s ability to realise the proposed fiscal plan amid the continued sit-at-home on Mondays.

But responding to the move by the state government, IPOB insisted that Monday sit-at-home was a “civil disobedience”, stressing that no governor has lawful power to compel citizens to open their businesses or move about against their will.

It added that any task force against the continued sit-at-home by those willing to do so would amount to an illegal provocation.

In a statement yesterday, IPOB stated that Governor Chukwuma Soludo or any other governor, had no power to direct the people against their will, especially when their action is a peaceful, non-violent expression of conscience.

The statement, signed by the Media and Publicity Secretary of the IPOB, Emma Powerful, warned Soludo to stop threatening Ndi Anambra and Ndi Igbo, stressing that the people are not his enemies and that his duty is to protect them, not punish them.

The statement added that Soludo should be the first to recognise the elementary democratic principle called “civil disobedience—a peaceful refusal to cooperate with policies and conditions viewed as unjust.”

It added: “If businessmen, traders, students, professionals, elders and youths voluntarily choose to sit at home on Mondays as a silent protest against the continued detention and persecution of Nnamdi Kanu, that is their right. It is not a crime. It is not rebellion. It is not an offence.”

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