Economic and social activities were on Thursday morning grounded in Abia and Imo states as a result of the Sit-at-Home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) to honour those killed in the struggle for Biafra, including during the Nigeria/Biafra War of 1967-70.

In Aba, the Abia commercial capital, commercial activities were completely grounded. All markets in the city were securely locked and the motor parks were deserted.

Major streets like Ohanku Road, East Street, Azikiwe Road and Asa Road were turned into emergency football pitches as youths could be seen playing or engaged in other recreational activities there.

A resident of the city, Michael Eze, a strong follower of IPOB Leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, told News Express: “People should realise that IPOB Government has come to stay in Biafraland, and there nothing anybody can do about it.”

Meanwhile, responding to News Express breaking news on the paralysing of the bustling city of Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of neighbouring Anambra State, by the Sit-at-Home exercise, a citizen reporter wrote from Owerri, the Imo capital: “O yea. Even activities in Imo State are grounded. Most of our kids are home.”

Asked how widespread compliance with the order was, she said: “I put calls across many parts of Owerri, including the market. All concurred that in the morning activities were low. Out of fear must kids in the metropolis didn’t go to school.”

The citizen reporter, however, disclosed that activities later picked up in Owerri and elsewhere in the state.

Security agencies had vowed to abort the event scheduled to hold across the five South-East states and other Igbo-speaking parts of Nigeria but IPOB and MASSOB vowed that nothing would stop the exercise from going ahead as scheduled.

Details of the level of compliance in Enugu and Ebonyi states is still not clear.

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