For about five years, business and other activities were grounded every Monday in the South-East due to the Sit-at-Home Order occasioned by the Biafran agitation. OKEY MADUFORO, in this report chronicles the issues and the journey to its end.
It all started in 2002 when on that fateful Thursday morning, all human activities in the South-East geopolitical stood still following reports that the Movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), led by Chief Ralph Uwazurike, has ordered the Igbos worldwide to stay at home in celebration of the Biafran Day.
It took no persuasive force or coercion for the Igbos to shut down all markets in the area as well as in Lagos and Kano markets in strict compliance with that order. No vehicle was burnt nor were there any death or casualties recorded on that day.
Apparently embarrassed by this development the then President Olusegun Obasanjo was said to have jokingly replied to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter that the Igbos had gone home enmass for their New Yam festivals which take place from the months of August and September.
There was no repeat of the Sit-AtHome Order for about two years when MASSOB celebrated yet another Biafra Day and life went on naturally. The Biafran Struggle may be likened to the fight against Apartheid South Africa where the likes of Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Steve Biko and Mrs Winnie Mandela exchanged the relay baton until the release of Mandela who ultimately became President of South Africa.
While Uwazurike left the center stage, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who also at some point was a member of MASSOB in the United Kingdom took the baton under a new name the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Interestingly, IPOB was not actually the brain child of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu but the likes of former Ohaneze Ndigbo President General worldwide,
late Dr Dozie Ikedife, who was the Deputy Chairman Supreme Council Indigenous People of Biafra (SCIPOB), former Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice Eze Ozogbu, who was the Chairman of the Council along with two others Eventually Mazi Nnamdi Kanu came into the picture as the propaganda angle of the struggle through the management of the Radio Biafra.
Soon Kanu was reported to have dissolved the SCIPOB and ultimately assumed the overall leader of the body which late Ikedife while he was alive dismissed as untrue. At the pick of the Biafran struggle under the watch of Kanu, it assumed a different dimension which orchestrated the violent angel and miscreants capitalized on this state of lawlessness to embark on all manner of brigandage.
Deepening to the sorry state was the arrest of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in Kenya, which indeed fueled all manner of criminalized separatists’ groups each laying claim to the struggle and tagging the continuous remanding of Kanu as their reasons for perpetrating crime and criminality.
An order criminalised It is no longer news that the order by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu had been banned several years before now and the original members of IPOB had abandoned the order but for the Biafran Remembrance Day or the day Kanu would be appearing before the law Court.
While Kanu was under the DSS custody some self-acclaimed leadership of the struggle appeared to have perfected a plot to use violence, arson and killings as weapons to make his release difficult as all manner of charges were brought against him at the court.
One from far away Finland, one Simon Ekpa now in prison allegedly introduced what was called autopilot or rapid as the case may be which produced a deadly and bloody recipe of death, horror and sorrow across Igboland. Communities fled their homes, Church attendance was banned for five years, the economy of the entire South-East was indeed nosediving.
It is not clear how many lives were lost but a source put it at not less than a million persons, including those whose whereabouts are not known and also those that died in the hands of suspected kidnappers. The order became the alibi for the criminal elements under the guise of Biafra struggle to send innocent people to their untimely graves.
S’East Governors reaction It is not in doubt that the South-East Governors’ Forum had been brainstorming on the way out of the woods by profiling IPOB as a terrorist group and the Federal Government proscribing the body. The Forum went further to establish the Ebube-Agu security outfit to comb the bushes and security flashpoints across the geopolitical zone but it’s results need much to be desired as they only made its presence known on the day of its launching but fizzled out immediately after its formation.
Even at some point in response to the alleged attacks by the Fulani herders on the South-East Mazi Nnamdi Kanu decried the formation of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) which also became another platform for some self-acclaimed freedom fighters to assume prominence hence deepening the already helpless situation in the area.
The order got to a very messy situation when school children could not sit for the West African School Certificate and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board examinations. Towns like Okigwe, Ihube , Isuochi, Ovim , Umunze , Isiagu, Orumba North and South, Ihiala local government areas of Abia, Imo, Enugu and Anambra states became ghosts of themselves.
It all seemed at some point that the South-East Governors Forum may have tried all measures to end the sit at home order and may have resigned to fate when Governor Charles Soludo took the bull by the horns. Soludo in the eye of the storm Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo is not new to Nigerians when it comes to staring the honest nest on strong controversial issues.
Perhaps the Governor’s Forum needed one of their own to bell the cat and Soludo offered to lead the strike force and Onitsha Main Market which is the largest market in sub Saharan Africa became the crucible of last war. The market was shut down for one week and it all appeared like heavens would fall.
Soludo’s firm stand on ending the order was indeed not only resolute but deliberate, as he described the order as a criminal sabotage against the socioeconomic development of the South-East. He had threatened to revoke shops and lands where people did not open for business come the next Monday warning that he had the backing of the law.
Soludo stated that under the land use act he has the right as a governor to revoke any market of shoes including the private ones under the policy of overriding public interest. He warned that should the traders refuse to open the markets he would not mind closing the markets for the rest of the year.
“We are not afraid of litigations in Anambra state and we are ready and you bring your lawyer and we bring our senior advocates quite a number of them”
“It is the property of the government of Anambra state and under the Land Use Act even the private ones I will revoke it and pay you compensation and that is what the law requires me to do.
All these markets I will revoke them and take them over and if you don’t like the compensation that I paid you we meet at the law court” “My powers to take it over based on public interest is sacrosanct and give you a cheque for compensation.
We are going to take attendance of those that opened their shops on Monday and we shall use the leadership of those lines at the market. The shops that are not open we mark them and either impose a fine on them our I will seal those shops and take them over.
The important thing is that this madness must end and we have endured this for over five years now” Soludo recalled that he had toured Onitsha before on Monday and discovered that the stadium and streets were busy with Business and other human activities while the Onitsha main market was closed due to insecurity.
He questioned why other parts of Onitsha were bursting with life without the fear of insecurity while the Onitsha market was closed due to insecurity.
“All the markets were open including on Sunday and Monday through the Christmas season and after the Christmas season they said oo! We have to luck up the market again”
“It is no longer sit at home and sit at home ended about two years ago and because on Mondays everywhere in Anambra especially in Onitsha and the streets are busy, the various stadium is full and people are doing exercise and people do walks on the road and hold neighborhood meetings and church meetings and street trading and everywhere is bustling” “Before now sit at home means staying at home and not coming out.
This time around it is no longer sit at home but laziness and what you have done for like five years becomes a tradition and you begin to redefine a new calendar for Anambra state and the South East that you are open for business only from Tuesday” “This is sabotage criminally intended against Anambra state and that is what is going on and we shall fight it with everything legal” he said.
Confusion In IPOB Camp; In what appears to be the genesis of the demise of sit at home, the Indigenous People Of Biafra IPOB had issues among the leadership when they traded blames over the position of the group when it has to do with sit at home order.
While Emma Powerful had insisted at some point that Soludo had no right to decide for the traders when to open their shops a section of the leadership stated that he doesn’t speak for the body hence giving Soludo the much-needed backing.
Chukwujadibia Edoziem who claims to be the Head Of Directorate of State describing the name Emma Powerful as a pseudonym stating that the name has been so much abused and misused by fifth columnists who have been capitalizing on the name to misrepresent IPOB.
According to Edoziem, from now henceforth, the name Emma Powerful no longer speak for the body adding that every statement from it must be accompanied with the official letterhead of IPOB.
He also noted that IPOB is not in support of the February 2nd Sit At Home Order dismissing it as one not coming from the body.
However, reports later came that the name Emma Powerful which was described as a psudoname had resigned giving reasons that his belief in the Biafran struggle and his passion have become a disappointment.
“Comrade Emma Powerful, the Spokesperson, Media, and Publicity Secretary of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has formally resigned from his position.
His resignation followed the controversial sit-at-home order issued for Monday, February 2, 2026, which the leadership of IPOB reportedly considered detrimental to the development of the South-East region” “As a result of the directive, the IPOB leadership barred him from further speaking on behalf of the organization”
In his resignation letter, released, Emma Powerful stated that after deep reflection, consultation with his conscience, and careful consideration of recent developments within the movement, he had decided to step down from his role, effective Friday, January 31, 2026.
“However, the unfolding realities, internal contradictions, and emerging approaches being adopted in recent times have made it increasingly difficult for me to continue in this capacity in good conscience.”
“It has become clear to me that remaining silent or proceeding as though all is well would constitute self-betrayal and a departure from the values I stand for.
I believe that every individual must know when to step aside rather than compromise deeply held convictions,” he stated This development further created cracks within the ranks of IPOB over the authenticity of of who is in charge of the body hence deepening the confusion in the separatists group.
While the war of words raged, all the markets in Anambra state opened on that Monday and there were no casualties or deaths recorded a development that marked the flagship of the end of the sit at home order.
Triumph Over Angels Of Death; Despite his stepping aside , Comrade Emma Powerful in a final statement said to have been made based on the directives of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Sokoto Correction Center announced the final and total end to the sit at home order.
“This directive comes directly from Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu himself, who has once again staked everything on the line to ensure that our children return to school every Monday and that our people go about their businesses without fear
