Enugu State government led by Governor Peter Mbah has threatened to revoke shops and licences of any trader that dare to observe next Monday’s sit-at-home order of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Before Mbah assumed office, the Biafra agitators had been punishing residents of the state who failed to observe the sit-at-home order initiated to discourage further detention of their leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the Department of State Services (DSS).
However, a few days after his assumption of office, Governor Mbah announced an end to the order, effective from June 5, Oweleke TV Reports.
While touring various parts of the state capital on Monday to monitor the level of compliance with his ban on the order, Mbah insists that IPOB sit-at-home order has restricted creativity, entrepreneurship, and productivity in the state.
He threatened to close any schools, markets, and financial institutions, among others, that obeyed the order.
The governor warned that traders, who continued to sit at home from Monday, July 24, stood to lose their shops to serious-minded businessmen.
According to him, adequate security had been provided in the areas, adding that there had not been any incident of attack since the ban on sit-at-home in June. To the traders at Ogbete, Garki, and other markets, the governor warned that locking shops on Mondays would no longer be condoned.
Mbah, who took time to interact with business owners, shoppers, traders as well as civil servants at the State Secretariat, said, “It should never be heard that we were cowed because of the threat of violence by these criminals.
“The poverty that will befall us for sitting at home will kill us even faster. We are losing over N10 billion every Monday that we sit at home. Enough is enough. This foolishness must end and it must end now. We cannot be marginalising ourselves and still complain of marginalisation.
“So, we must say no to sit-at-home because what it means is that we are destroying our employment, our economy, and our GDP.”
Responding, the market leaders and business owners assured the governor that they were now ready for full compliance, saying they were already sick and tired of the Monday sit-at-home.
