By PAMELA EBOH, Awka and NDUKA EZEOGU, Aba

Despite the cancellation of the weekly sit-at-home order announced by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), many residents of the South-East region seem too scared to return to their normal activities.

The result is the continued crippling of businesses in the zone every Monday.

As at the time of filling this report, roads in Awka, Anambra State capital, and the ones in the commercial city of Onitsha were deserted with skeletal services in some areas. Commercial buses were doing their normal businesses but few passengers were seen at the parks.

Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, witnessed a total lockdown following a self-imposed sit-at-home by the people in solidarity with the detained IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Markets, shops, commercial banks and even the local government secretariat located at the main park axis in the city were under lock and key. The few available POS operators who managed to open for business had a field day attending to people who were desperately in need of money.

As has become a routine, young men were seen playing football on the major streets in the city. A resident, Okorie Kalu, a second-hand cloth merchant at the popular Ngwa Road Market, summed it up, saying: “You can see this market is open but there is nobody inside.”

Security agents could be seen patrolling major streets and intermittently stopping people for routine check.

According to a source in Owerri, Imo State capital, many roads were also deserted as workers, traders stayed indoors.

The Chairman of the South East Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi, had on Sunday had said that the zone was already on “red alert” as a result of the sit-at-home ordered by IPOB.

He lamented that the sit-at-home order by IPOB, if not stopped, will cripple economic development and pursue investors from the region.

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