End of IPOB’s sit-at-home

The five-year disruptive sit-at-home enforced by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has ended after a hard-fought and decisive stand by Governor of Anambra State, Charles Chukwuma Soludo. It began on August 8, 2021 as part of pressures by the proscribed group for the release of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu, but was violently enforced through killings, kidnappings and destructions. It led to widespread shutdown of markets, schools, banks, transport and other economic and social activities, every Monday, throughout the region.

But the victory and reclaiming of state authority over the sit-at-home didn’t come easy as it was achieved through Governor Soludo’s iron-fisted determination that forced the IPOB originators to formally pull the plug over the lockdowns.

Following the State Executive Council retreat held on January 21, 2026, Soludo issued an “Executive Order on Termination of Monday Sit-at-Home in Anambra State,” explicitly abolishing it. On Monday January 26, he visited Onitsha Main Market and found the over 450,000 shops on lockdown in defiant to his order. He ordered the immediate closure of the market for one week. Next week Monday, February 2, he revisited the market to confirm its reopening and obedience to his order. Then, on Sunday February 8, IPOB announced that the Monday sit-at-home across the South-East “is officially and permanently cancelled with effect from tomorrow, Monday, February 9, 2026.”

Governor Soludo earlier lamented that the “long-standing, fear-enforced Monday sit-at-home order, a ghostly mandate from non-state actors that has strangled businesses and normalised weekly Monday sit-at-home for years. In spite of repeated assurances of enhanced security and appeals to reclaim public spaces, many traders at the iconic market again chose to keep their stalls locked.”

And this has cost the region especially Anambra dearly. SBM Intelligence, in their May 2025 report “Four Years of Disruption: Unmasking the Impact of IPOB’s Sit-at-Home Order in Southeast Nigeria” said the region lost N7.6 trillion from 2021 to early 2025. Anambra State alone reportedly lost between N8 billion–N19.6 billion each Monday the businesses were closed.

It had the worst impacts on trade hubs with the transport sector alone facing daily losses up to N13 billion at peak periods, widespread business closures, job losses, and disruptions to education and supply chains.

The shutdowns originally encompassed the five states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo but gradually waned in enforcement. In Enugu, the routing began when Governor Peter Mbah implemented the ‘Operation No To Sit-At-Home’ which banned and enforced the non-observance from June 2023. In Abia, partial or uneven observance persisted in areas like Aba. For Ebonyi, commercial activities largely normalized earlier in the state but Imo was one of the states with more persistent enforcement and incidents.

Anambra, a commercial powerhouse, was the epicentre of IPOB enforcement as the state hosts one of West Africa’s largest and busiest trading hubs with Onitsha Main market as the biggest. With IPOB violence, the markets lost their lure as traders especially those from African countries shifted trading activities to Lagos.

Daily Trust commends Soludo for the deployment of political will that forced the hand of IPOB to throw in the towel. His bold and pivotal initiatives were backed by state pressure and security actions. Even though the federal government controls the defence and other security agencies, the Anambra Governor strengthened community-based security architecture, including the establishment of the Agunechemba vigilante outfit, alongside coordinated anti-cultism and anti-touting task forces. These collaborations significantly reduced criminal activity, allowing residents, traders and students to resume normal routines without fear.

We, therefore, urge other governors across Nigeria that have different security challenges to imitate Anambra’s decisive strategies, coordination, crackdowns and innovations that can make secure peace and security for the people. The Anambra example shows that if more governors adopted similar resolve and tailor them to their local threats, there would be better security. The combination of federal and subnational leadership can help restore prosperity to Nigerians.

We must also remind other governors that it is time to get inspired and take charge of home-grown solutions against non-state disruptions rather than surrendering their will to federal actions that have not been quick and sustainable in coming.

For IPOB, we hope they have now realised that real change does not come from sabotaging the people they claim to be fighting for. In their mindless violent ventures, they lost the support of the people, torched and collapsed Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), crashed investor confidence and caused a sharp drop in Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in the region. Businesses relocated and talents emigrated from the South East as the region lost their economic edge.

We also believe that IPOB should apologise for their uncontrolled mayhem – extortion, kidnapping for ransom, killings and destruction which traumatised residents and communities. And they should pledge to never again destroy their region.

We also remind the governments and people of South East states to understand that even with the collapse of the self-imposed destructive shutdowns the region faces a long road to recover from its accumulated damage. And we hope they are wiser and have learned the required lessons going forward. After all, it is time for the full restoration of normalcy to begin.

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