MOST businesses including banks, fuel stations, schools and motor parks in the commercial cities in the South East of Nigeria were shut on Tuesday, May 30, in response to the call for a sit-at-home peaceful protest by pro-Biafran groups.

The Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, and the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, had called for a sit-at-home today in the South-East to commemorate the declaration of Biafra by the late Chukwuemeka Ojukwu 50 years ago.

Hence, Owerri, Enugu and Aba, markets including the popular Ariara main market in Aba were totally closed down.

A resident of Owerri and Biafra supporter, Okemiri Samson, commended the people of the city for the compliance to the exercise.

“This is the highest compliance recorded in the city in recent times”, he noted. In Enugu, there was also a massive compliance.

“I am at the Ogbete Main market in Enugu right now, it is under lock and key.

“My sisters went to school and their school was closed so they came back,” a resident, Raphael Onyekachi said.

In Port Harcourt, South-South Nigeria, there was also a high level of compliance according to a resident. Okezie Omeire.

Omeire advised commuters not to bother going to Aba or Umuahia as the road was closed.

“If you are going to Aba from Port Harcourt, please don’t even dare! You will not get to your destination. Everywhere is as dry and as silent as a graveyard. I just wasted my time and money this morning thinking I will make it to Umuahia this morning but guess what? I can’t even make it to Osisioma junction. I have to drive back to PH (Port Harcourt),” he said.

“Starting from Port Harcourt city, Rumuola, Rumuokwuta, Rumuokoro, Choba, Mile 1, Mile 2 and Mile 3 markets, Oil Mill and any busy place you can think of in PH, everywhere is scanty and deserted!”

The exercise, according to preliminary reports gathered by PREMIUM TIMES has so far been a huge success in Anambra State especially in Onitsha as shops, markets, banks and schools in the city remained closed.

According to John Okorie, a resident, “MASSOB called and we answered. All businesses in the city are closed including shops in the streets.”

Security officials were seen driving around the city to keep the peace. A similar situation was recorded in the state’s capital, Awka, and the second commercial city of Nnewi.

In Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, there was partial compliance, as the Abakpa Market, the city’s main market, was opened but most shops still remained closed at press time.

Many of the traders were seen gathered in front of their shops discussing the situation.

As they noticed that those who flouted the order and opened their shops were not being molested, many of them summoned courage and started opening their shops.

But the major private transporters in the city shut down their parks in compliance with the MASSOB and IPOB directives.

However, two banks, UBA and First Bank, opened their doors to customers while other banks remained shut leaving customers, who thronged to the banks, stranded.

Hours later, some other banks opened for business after observing the tight security mounted by police and other security agencies in the city to secure lives and prosperity. But the likes of Ecobank and Diamond bank branches remained closed as at press time.

Also, police helicopters were seen hovering over most of the cities to provide aerial surveillance especially in Umuahia, the hometown of Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader.

Kanu, who is facing charges of treasonable felony, was recently released on bail. While on bail, he has, however, restated his demand for a Biafran state, and urged support for Tuesday’s sit-at-home.

However, shops owned by Igbo indigenes in Lagos showed that many business people from the region flouted the order.

Some told our correspondent that they support the agitation but not to their own detriment. “I and my children must eat now. If I decide to stay at home today, who will feed me and the family,” one of the businessmen in Lagos, who refused to mention his name, said.

The Ohaneze Ndigbo, a foremost socio-cultural Igbo group, also said it saw nothing wrong in the sit-at-home directive, saying it was a peaceful means of protest.

In any case, the governors from the South East have disowned the ongoing sit-at-home order. Instead the governors warned agitators to abstain from endangering the region.

The governors said they understand there were challenges, but that the actions of the agitators would not do the region any good. As the sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) takes effect, governors from the south-eastern part of Nigeria have said there is no secession plan in the agenda of the Igbo.

While dissociating themselves from the sit-at-home order by the IPOB and other such groups, the governors warned those championing the agitations to desist from it and allow people go about their businesses.  The governors warned against any attempt by the agitating groups to endanger the southeast.

“The South-East governors are fully aware of the saturation of various news and information outlets, particularly the social media platforms, with the call by leaders of a movement known as IPOB, who are agitating for cessation from the Federal Republic of Nigeria and formation of sovereign state of Biafra, for a total shutdown of economic activities in the entire Eastern region on May 30, 2017.

“It would be a tragic dereliction of our responsibility as leaders if we failed to take a clear and definitive stand at this potentially explosive moment in the history of Ndigbo at home and in the Diaspora, and our compatriots within the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the governors said in a statement signed on behalf of the forum by Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State. —With agencies reports

—  May 30, 2017 @ 14:30 GMT