The Enugu, State capital and Owerri, its Imo State counterpart, were quiet on Friday as residents complied with a sit-at-home order imposed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB) and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra to mark ‘2025 Biafra Day’.
IPOB has for years been directing residents to stay indoors every 30 May in honour of Biafra’s fallen heroes, a directive that continued this year.
Saturday PUNCH, who monitored the situation across the Enugu metropolis, observed that government offices, banks, shops, schools, marketplaces, parks, shopping complexes, filling stations, and restaurants were all closed as the streets became deserted.
Some of the major streets visited in Enugu included Gariki, Agbani Road, Zik’s Avenue, Ogbete Market, State Secretariat, New Market, New Layout, Abakpa, Trans-Ekulu, Emene and Eke-Obinagu.
Also, schools within the WTC area, including the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu Campus and IMT Enugu, Practising Schools Emene, were locked with security operatives seen patrolling the streets to maintain law and order
Some residents, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH, attributed the widespread compliance to fear of possible violence, although some said they used it to rest after busy schedules during the week.
Another resident of Enugu, Sunday Ejike, said the Biafra Day should become a public holiday in the South-East region.
‘There’s nothing wrong for the government of the South-East region to declare a public holiday on every May 30 for Biafra Day. If it is in the South-West, their leaders would have pressed the Federal Government to declare a national holiday but in the case of South-East, the leaders are very naïve.
‘Why must soldiers, police and other security agencies attack innocent youths in the South-East because of Biafra Day? By doing so, the people will continue the agitation and the tension will increase’, he said.
Meanwhile, in Owerri, a similar situation also held sway as business centres, schools and government offices were shut in compliance with the sit-at-home directive.
This came despite an earlier directive from the Imo State Police Command urging the residents to disregard the sit-at-home order and go about their normal business activities.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that the major streets in the state capital were deserted even with heavy security presence across the state.
A visit to the usually busy Wethedral, Douglas, and Tetlow roads, considered to be the commercial hubs of the state, revealed total emptiness, as residents stayed indoors.
Traders, who pleaded anonymity said they stayed away to avoid any form of attack on their business premises under any guise.
Commenting on the sit-at-home order, the Imo Police spokesperson, Henry Okoye, warned against any action that may lead to breakdown of law and order in any parts of the state.
Okoye said security operatives drawn from the Army, Airforce, Police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp, Department of State Services, Federal Road Safety Corps, Immigration, and Federal Fire Service had been stationed across the state to ensure safety of lives and properties.
‘Joint security operatives have been strategically deployed across the 27 Local Government Areas of the State. These operatives are currently undertaking intensive confidence-building patrols and operation show-of-force to deter criminal elements and reassure members of the public’, Okoye stated.
