Biafran Sit-at-home: Full Compliance by Igbo traders

Biafran Sit-at-home: Full Compliance by Igbo traders

Tuesday, May 30, 2017 12:52 pm


Pro- Biafra protesters


Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Sit-at-home order directed by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB ,was obeyed by Igbo traders living and doing business in Port Harcourt. Business premisses run by those sympathetic to the Biafra agitation were closed.

Investigation revealed that Ikoku motor spare parts by Mile 3, which is the biggest in Port Harcourt,the Rivers State capital was completely shut down for business today.

Markets in Port Harcourt were not shut as directed by IPOB but it was observed that some markets in Rumuokoro, Akwaka, Rumudara etc were opened but did not bubble as before as shops run by Igbo people were not opened.

It was observed that some private schools in the state capital took the path of caution as they asked their pupils and students to stay home due to alleged threats and intimidation by IPOB members and sympathisers of agitation for Biafra that if they opened they would be declared enemies of Biafra.

Some proprietors said some parents even threatened to withdraw their children from any of the schools that didn’t close in solidarity with the agitators for a Biafran state.

Along Ikwerre road, Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway, Ada George road and Airport road and others shops were partially opened.

There were reports that some motorists and commuters were molested by some IPOB members along Obigbo axis, Timber Shade in Obigbo and Mile Four some hoodlums tried to harass motorists and commuters going about their businesses.

IPOB had directed people to mark the declaration of Biafran by the late Biafran leader, then Colonel Chukwuemeka Odiimagwu Ojukwu on May 30,1967 and remember those who died in the Civil War.

However, Maduka Okeke who is an IPOB sympathiser told our correspondent that it wrong for members to force compliance on other people to sit at home or close their businesses.

“It is a struggle that should be persuasive, accompanied with a lot education and intellectual engagement not coercion or brutal force.”


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