OKECHUKWU OBETA writes that, notwithstanding the cheering news of ending the more than four years of sit-at-home by traders in all the major markets in the state by the Anambra State governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, not a few traders in Onitsha Main Market have been passing through sleepless nights over the governor’s plan to remodel the market with over 10,000 shops marked for demolition
It has been reported that the Anambra State governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, is planning to remodel the Onitsha Main Market, an action that has led to the marking of over 10,000 shops in the market for demolition.
Sadly, the governor’s announcement that over 10,000 shops will be demolished has replaced the joyful moments following his end of the over four-year Monday sit-at-home by traders.
The traders have been locking up their shops to observe the Monday sit-at-home forced on them by the separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Some of the traders who expressed their frustration in an interview with LEADERSHIP Weekend said that they are not opposed to the government’s plan to remodel the market. They, however, pleaded that the state government provide them with an alternative market before commencing the market reconstruction so that their businesses do not close down, which, if not well planned, could throw them and their family members into hardship.
For instance, a shoe dealer at Johnson Street in the Onitsha Main Market, Mr Kenneth Ayogu, said that he has a family of eight children, his wife and two apprentices. He said he had been trading in the market for 30 years, adding that he had completed his apprenticeship there before setting up his own shop.
“My shop has been marked for demolition. But I have been paying government revenue in this shop. We were paying N5,000 before, but since this Soludo government came into office, we have been paying N30,000 in revenue every year.
Even if the government wants to demolish our shops, let the government build another market for us.
“I have eight children, plus my wife and two apprentices. Some of my children are still going to school. How will I feed my family and pay my children’s school fees if the government demolishes my shop? They gave me until 24 February (2026) to remove everything I have in this shop. Where am I taking them to?” he asked.
In a similar manner, a cap dealer, Barnabas Onu, a bag dealer in the same Johnson Street, Nwachukwu Okeke, an eyeglasses dealer at Bright Street, Mrs Jacenta Ezechukwu and a clothes dealer in the same Bright Street, Sunday Nze, lamented that the announcement by the governor that their shop would be demolished has been causing them sleepless nights.
“Since the announcement that our shop will be demolished, my husband and I have not been sleeping. We have five apprentices and four children.
“What are we going to do with our apprentices? Are we going to send them back to their parents in the village?
“We have our children’s school fees to pay, feed, and some of our aged relatives we are taking care of.
“And according to the notice the government gave, they said that we are given till the 24th of this month (February) to pack our goods. So, where are we going? I have been in this market for more than 20 years now. The only place I have to shop is here. We are begging Soludo to stop the plan to demolish our shops until he can provide us with another market,” Mrs Ezechukwu pleaded.
She stated that thousands of traders would be thrown out of business if the governor goes ahead to carry out the shop demolition, saying, “The shops they want to demolish are more than 10,000. And each shop has at least two traders. So, if you multiply the number, the traders who will be out of business when the government demolishes all the shops, the number will be in thousands.”
Similarly, Nze appealed to the governor to provide an alternative market where those whose shops will be demolished can relocate to before commencing the market reconstruction.
“I have only one shop. And it is among the shops government said will be demolished. My sister has three shops, and all of them have been marked for demolition. So, how are we going to survive?” Nze asked.
Besides the shops’ demolition plan, the traders are also troubled that the manner in which the governor enforced the end of every Monday shop closure in the market will be counter-productive unless all the governments in the South East region are able to initiate a coordinated security arrangement that will guarantee the safety of movement across the region.
For instance, a tailoring materials dealer at Williams Street, Mr Maxwell, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that before the governor’s one-week closure of the Onitsha Main Market, and its reopening on 2 February, many of them had started opening their shops on Mondays without any attack from hoodlums enforcing sit-at-home.
He, however, expressed worry that by issuing a formal order to traders to open shops on Mondays, the hoodlums, in an effort to put fears in the minds of customers and traders, might start attacking people on the roads on Mondays across the South East states to discourage customers who come from other states to purchase goods from markets in the state.
“Even if the governor sends the army people to protect us in this market on Mondays, if customers cannot pass the roads to come and buy things from us, our opening of shops will have no meaning.
“We have many customers coming from Port-Harcourt, Owerri, Kano, Maiduguri and other places to this main market and other markets like Ochanja, Relief and others. So, if they can’t pass the roads to come to Onitsha, our coming to open shops will be a waste of time “, he argued.
Several other traders interviewed expressed concerns similar to those of Maxwell.
Sunday Nze told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the Main Market executive members, including the chairmen of all the line markets, were in a meeting with the chairman of the main market, Chief Chijioke Okpalaugo, to come up with a suggestion on a better way to approach the governor to prevail on him to stop the plan to carry out the demolition in the market and also, be less confrontational in his approach to sustain the ending of traders’ locking up of shops on Mondays.
Attempts by LEADERSHIP Weekend to get the details of the outcome of the market leaders’ meeting from the chairman shortly after the meeting at the White House, was however unsuccessful as he frantically zoomed out of the office, preferring to speak to our correspondent the following day.
IPOB had since August 2021, ordered the every Monday sit-at-home across all the five South East states, comprising Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, as part of the group’s agenda to pressure the Federal Government to grant its demand for a separate Republic of Biafra and also set free its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who was then standing trial on terrorism charges, but now serving a life jail sentence having been convicted based on the charges.
Since then, traders in all the major markets across Anambra State have not been opening their shops, especially out of fear of possible attacks should they disobey the IPOB order.
Even after the IPOB leader later rescinded the sit-at-home order following the pressure mounted on him to do so by the leadership of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and some influential Igbo sons and daughters who cited the grave economic effects on the region’s economy, and the people, particularly the vulnerable ones, traders in the major markets in the state have continued to lock up their shops. This is because a splinter IPOB under the command of a Finland-based Simon Ekpa later emerged, and continued enforcing the sit-at-home order, terrorising and killing whoever disobeyed the order. It was estimated that over 250 lives were wasted in the circumstances in the region by the group. Prominent among the victims was Dr Chike Akunyili, the husband of the late former NAFDAC boss and Information Minister, Prof Dora Akunyili.
However, after subtle entreaties to get traders in the markets across the state, especially in Onitsha and Nnewi, to open their shops on Mondays without success, Soludo, on Wednesday, 26 January 2026, wielded the big stick, closing down the Onitsha Main Market for one week. This is probably a warning signal to readers in other markets across the state that a similar fate would befall them if they continue to lock up their shops on Mondays in obedience to the IPOB order.
Soludo fumed that the sit-at-home has become a deliberate plot, especially by political enemies, to run down the state economy. He said that over N8 billion in business transactions were being lost in the main market due to compliance with the IPOB’s Monday sit-at-home.
Soludo, however, insisted that the economic sabotage must stop and threatened to revoke any trader’s right of shop ownership if the trader failed to open his or her shop after the expiration of the one-week closure of the market by his government as a punishment to the traders for their continued locking up of their shops in compliance with the IPOB order.
Soludo even threatened to permanently shut down the main market and redesignate it as an annexe of the state government security outfit known as ‘Agunechemba.’
At the expiration of the one-week closure and the government’s reopening of the market, traders reopened their shops, and there was no record of any attack, despite the earlier sit-at-home declaration on that very Monday in all South East states by IPOB’s spokesperson, Comrade Emma Powerful. He had insisted that the sit-at-home was to be a demonstration of solidarity with the traders in the main market over the state government’s use of force on them to open their shops against their (traders’) wishes.
However, in a counter-announcement, the lead lawyer on the IPOB legal team, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, directed the members of the separatist movement to disregard Emma Powerful’s sit-at-home solidarity order, insisting that the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, did not approve it.
The lawyer said that IPOB has already rescinded the earlier order for the sit-at-home to be observed due to its grave economic effects on the region and its people, and warned that anyone promoting the order should be observed is an enemy of the movement and the people of the South East region.
Analysts have maintained that, though Soludo said he remains committed to ending the locking up of shops by traders to observe the Monday sit-at-home, it is necessary that the government pioneer a coordinated security arrangement that would involve all South East state governments to ensure the safety of customers coming to do business in the markets.
Though traders in the Onitsha Main Market have expressed their readiness to comply with Soludo’s directive to end the sit-at-home on Mondays, many said they would only open their shops late, after waiting to see if there are no attacks by hoodlums.
