Monday Sit-At-Home: How Leaders Opened Market Gates With No Business Activities

 Leaders of various markets in Anambra state, particularly in the commercial city of Onitsha, have devised some measures to avoid Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s hammer against those who close their markets on Mondays in support of sit-at-home.

Soludo warned market leaders in the state to stop closing their markets on Mondays to observe sit-at-home. He stated that the era of sit-at-home was over because the government could not afford to lose billions of naira on a weekly basis.

On some occasions, Solution would convene a meeting of market leaders and threaten to remove any market leader in the state who closed his market on a Monday to participate in the exercise, which he also called illegal.

Despite complaints from some market leaders that some of their colleagues who opened their markets on a Monday like this were abducted by unknown gunmen, including the Chairman of Mgbuka Amazu Old Motor Spare Parts market on the Onitsha/Owerri road in Onitsha, who has yet to return as of the time of filing this report, Soludo was said to have insisted that markets be opened on Mondays to avoid further colossal losses.

The market leaders appeared to be weighing the options of losing their seats to the state government or losing their lives to unknown gunmen, so they opened the market gates and left them wide open from morning until 5 p.m. on Mondays, which is normal business hours.

A visit to some markets on Monday revealed that the gates to markets such as the New Auto Spare Parts Market in Nkpor, the Ogbaru Main Market in Onitsha, and the Nkpor Main Market were wide open, but there was no one there to buy or sell.

Chairman of Ogbaru Main Market, Chief Ndubuisi Ochiogu, stated that he usually stays at the market office until the end of market hours on Mondays.

However, he expressed disappointment that the abducted Chairmen of Mgbuka Amazu has yet to return and that no action has been taken by authorities to locate him.