ABA, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, was shutdown on Wednesday, as citizens stayed indoors in compliance with a sit-at-home order by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The IPOB says May 30 of every year is set aside to commemorate the thousands of people that died during the Nigerian civil war between 1967 and 1970.
But it is not clear whether citizens stayed at home in commemoration of victims of the war, or out of fear of molestation by IPOB members.
Some governors of South Eastern states had threatened to punish anyone who complies with the sit-at-home order.
“Any trader that closes shop on that day will forfeit it forever and any protest will be decisively dealt with,” David Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State had warned citizens of the State, during his May 29 Democracy Day speech.
“Ebonyi indigenes should go about their businesses peacefully and safely and if the South-East governors say we don’t want IPOB activities, it does not mean that we are happy with the zone’s marginalisation in the country.”
In Anambra State, an internal memo by Harry Udu, the State’s head of service, had warned the workers in the State to report to their duty posts on Wednesday. “Perm. Secs and Heads of MDAs should monitor and report compliance unfailingly,” the memo directed.
These warnings yielded results in Anambra as citizens were reported to have defied the IPOB and went about their businesses as usual, but the situation was different in Aba, considered the strongest base of the IPOB.
In 2017, Okezie Ikpeazu, Governor of Abia State, said he had no problem with the IPOB’s sit-at-home directive so long as nobody was forced to observe it.
“Government offices and agencies opened but it is up to businessmen to either open their shops or close them at will. So, in all, as long as no life is lost, as long as nobody is molested, as long as lives and properties are secured, it is okay,” Ikpeazu told journalists at the time.
Here are some of the pictures of Aba as shared on facebook by Michael Ogbaegbe:
