Although, Monday was declared a public holiday to mark the New Year celebration, as expected banks and some offices did not open for business.
But motor parks, major markets, petrol stations and other public places, which had been bubbling with activities before today remained under lock and key, even the roads were deserted as most people stayed indoors.
Our correspondent who visited the ever-busy Upper-Iweka in Onitsha observed that all the busy motor parks, which were hitherto filled with commuters travelling for the Yuletide were like a ghost town as they were empty with no activity and under lock and key.
Even fun-seekers who would have used the opportunity of the Yuletide to visit places for picnics avoided public places while they remain indoors.
The situation was the same at major cities visited by our correspondent on Monday.
Although, the state Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, had during an event with civil servants in the state, vowed to end the Monday sit-at-home as workers resumed.
Soludo had insisted that the state cannot afford to continue wasting 20 per cent of its weekly revenues by working four days out of five days of the week.
Also, when contacted on Monday, the Press Secretary to the governor, Christian Aburime, said the people should obey the state government’s directive on ending the sit-at-home.
“The people should obey the state government’s directive of resuming activities Mondays, instead of non-state actors,” Aburime said.
A market leader in Onitsha identified as Chief Nnamdi Ogwu described the sit-at-home as “senseless”, saying it is high time it is stopped.
“The Monday sit-at-home is not helping us as a people and a region. The governor has vowed to stop it in 2023, we can only advise that adequate machinery should be set in place because it goes beyond rhetoric.
“We can’t afford to continue the exercise in 2023, even the Indigenous People of Biafra has cancelled it, it is now left for our security agencies to live up to expectation by beefing up security around public places so that people can go about their normal businesses without any fear of attack,” Ogwu added.
In a statement sent to our correspondent, the Indigenous People of Biafra’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, reiterated that the group had already cancelled the Monday sit-at-home.
Powerful blamed the security operatives, who have failed to go after the “hoodlums enforcing the sit-at-home”, who he said are not members of IPOB.
