The South East States of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo are in the grip of fresh anxiety over safety of life and property after the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) called for a sit-at-home protest across the region tomorrow.

The group branded it Biafra-wide solidarity lockdown to show support for Onitsha traders in the aftermath of the closure of the city’s main market for one week by Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo.

The planned sit-at-home is also meant to press for the release of leader of IPOB Nnamdi Kanu from jail.

In a swift reaction to the IPOB statement yesterday, lead counsel for the group, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, asked South-East residents to completely ignore the strike.

He called It fake and fraudulent.

Governor Soludo ordered the market shut for one week last Monday following the traders’ continued compliance with the IPOB sit-at-home directive.

He expressed disappointment that the traders chose to obey “the long-standing, fear-enforced Monday sit-at-home order; a ghostly mandate from non-state actors that has strangled businesses and normalised weekly Monday sit-at-home for years.”

He described his closure order as the latest and perhaps most drastic approach to determine who controls time and economic life in Southeast Nigeria on Mondays.

Soludo said government would not stand by while a few individuals willfully undermined public safety and disregarded official directives meant to restore normalcy.

He said if the market did not reopen for business after the one-week shutdown, it would be sealed for a month.

On Friday, the governor, accompanied by some of his commissioners, undertook another visit to the market to map out areas for remodeling in the complex.

The market, according to him, has lost much of its functionality owning to years of unplanned development and the crippling effects of the Monday sit-at-home.

“The Onitsha Main Market, in its current state, is no longer functional. We have done the study. The main market is no longer what it was designed to be. It has literally died,” he said.

Soludo recalled that in the late 1970s, the market operated with wide streets, organised stalls and ample parking space, allowing smooth movement of trucks and shoppers—conditions he said no longer exist.

He said persistent adherence to the Monday sit-at-home order has “further worsened the situation with billions of naira lost weekly and customers diverted to neighbouring states.”

“Leadership requires taking inconvenient steps to secure the future. The closure of the market is a corrective measure to reclaim the state’s economic life,” he said.

“This remodeling aligns with our manifesto to build planned and sustainable markets, communities and cities. Leadership beckons us to take these difficult but necessary steps.”

He told the traders that he would be back there tomorrow to supervise resumption of business.

Chairman of the Onitsha Main Market, Chief Chijioke Okpalaugo, said the traders were in tune with the government’s vision, but appealed for a brief grace period to secure their goods.

“After careful consideration of the proposals presented by the state government, we, the leadership and traders of Onitsha Main Market, have chosen Option 2 (remodeling and stop sit-at-home) as the preferred path forward,” he said.

However, IPOB did not take kindly to the governor’s action in shutting the market.

It said the market closure amounted to economic strangulation of the Igbo and called for a “Biafra-wide solidarity strike” tomorrow.

It said: “This total shutdown is a direct, peaceful and unified response to the tyrannical actions of Governor Soludo, who shut down the Onitsha Main Market and threatened further closures, demolitions and revocation of land ownership.

“Soludo’s war on Onitsha traders is a war on all Biafrans. Touch one, touch all.”

It asked traders, public transport operators, banks, schools, civil servants and residents across the region to observe the peaceful “solidarity lockdown.”

The group said the sit-at-home was a voluntary act of civil disobedience and warned that Soludo’s actions could provoke wider resistance.

We’re fully prepared to maintain police —Police

The Anambra State Police Command declared its readiness to maintain law and order following the latest statement by IPOB.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, Tochukwu Ikenga, said the initial stage of the security crisis involved attacks on security operatives and destruction of government facilities by criminal elements seeking to instill fear in residents.

According to the police, “the state government, in collaboration with Ndi Anambra, has now resolved to correct harmful practices arising from the security situation, including the illegal sit-at-home and closure of markets on Mondays.”

The police assured residents of their safety and their property, adding, “security agencies are not the enemy but those who seek to inflict suffering and hardship on the people.”

Also, members of the state security outfit, Agunechemba, have vowed to storm the Main Market to protect the lives and property of the citizenry.

The leader of the Agunechemba outfit in the state, Prince Ken Emeakayi, said the group would not allow anyone or group to invade Anambra again, saying,”we are battle ready.”

IPOB lawyer to Southeast residents: Ignore sit-at-home order

Reacting to the IPOB statement, counsel to the group Ifeanyi Ejiofor urged Southeast residents to ignore the strike.

Ejiofor said the call to strike was fake; a phantom and a calculated falsehood.

He said: “Once again, the well-worn theatre of misinformation has opened its curtains, this time with a particularly lazy script and an insultingly predictable cast.

“Late yesterday, a report was widely circulated alleging that a total lockdown of Ala-Igbo had been ordered under the guise of a sit-at-home directive purportedly issued by ‘Emma Powerful,’ slated for Monday, February 2, 2026.

“Let it be stated clearly, unequivocally and without ambiguity: this directive is fake, a phantom, a calculated falsehood.

“Upon careful inquiry and diligent verification, especially considering the delicate and hard-won calm presently returning to our homeland, it became glaringly obvious that the so-called ‘Emma Powerful’ platform has been fatally compromised.

“It has been hijacked by vested interests whose business model thrives on fear, disruption, extortion, and the cynical exploitation of vulnerable communities.

“The peaceful global movement of the IPOB has formally and decisively disowned this fabricated publication, categorically distancing itself from the false sit-at-home order and directing Ndi-Igbo to go about their lawful and normal activities without fear.

“Going forward, the message from IPOB is unmistakable: any publication attributed to ‘Emma Powerful’ should be treated with extreme suspicion, if not outright contempt.

“Frankly, one cannot but express astonishment, bordering on disbelief, that at such a critical juncture, when relative peace is cautiously resurfacing in Ala-Igbo, anyone would recklessly circulate information capable of reopening wounds and inviting criminal infiltration.

“History has taught us, at unbearable cost, what happens when fake directives fall into the hands of violent opportunists masquerading as enforcers.

“It is therefore no longer sufficient to merely advise our people to ‘ignore’ publications from this source. The time has come for greater clarity and firmness.

“The platform known as ‘Emma Powerful,’ in its current corrupted state, has positioned itself as an adversary to Ala-Igbo’s peace, progress, and collective well-being.”

Ejiofor said IPOB must go further by publicly and definitively explaining why this source has become unreliable, compromised and hostile to the collective interest of Ndi-Igbo. (The Nation)