Enugu govt seals banks, Shoprite, SPAR, others for obeying IPOB’s sit-at-home order

The Enugu State government on Monday, sealed two banks and 107 businesses for observing the “illegal sit-at-home order” in markets throughout the state.

On Monday, representatives of the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) and the state government conducted the process.

The facilities’ closure, according to Chidiebere Onyia, secretary to the state government (SSG), was in accordance with Governor Peter Mbah’s orders.

The governor, according to Onyia, plans to “fight those that think they can intimidate us” and stop the negative economic effects of the sit-at-home order.

He added that 85 percent of traders showed up in the markets visited by the task force.

“It is not a punitive but ownership culture, where all of us come together to fight the menace of illegal sit-at-home in the state,” the SSG said.

“We are taking it up not because Mbah is in the business of stopping economic growth but to fight those that think they can intimidate us.”

“We have been to ShopRite, Celebrity – a shopping mall – SPAR and others, we saw shops that were not open, and we sealed them.

“That is why ECTDA is here, and the owners should go through a process to get them reopened.”

Read Also: Enugu govt threatens to close down businesses observing sit-at-home

On his part, Gideon Onyia, the head of ECTDA, said 78 shops were sealed at the Ogbete market.

He added that two new generation banks, five shops at SPAR and 24 shops at the Old Artisan market were also sealed.

“So if you failed to obey our rules and directives, we can revoke them or withdraw your approvals and give them to people eager to do business in the state,” he said.

“Those whose shops are sealed, we will tell them the penalty, but the governor was magnanimous for saying that the exercise was not punitive.”

Residents of the South-East have been observing a sit-at-home that was ordered by a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB (IPOB) led by Simon Ekpa based in Finland,

The main IPOB initially started the sit-at-home campaign to push for the release of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

But the initiative was hijacked by Ekpa, who has allegedly been empowering thugs to cause havoc in the region under the guise of enforcing the order.

The sit-at-home has led to economic hardship in the region as people hardly come out on Mondays and whenever the order is given.

Ekpa recently ordered South-East residents to stay at home for one week and has threatened another two-week sit-at-home from July 31st to August 14.

 

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