The Anambra State government’s recent ban on the Monday sit-at-home order of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has elicited tension in the state.

The unease is not unconnected to some residents’ sympathy for the proscribed group’s “civil disobedience”, coupled with IPOB’s pushback against the government’s directive.

The state government, following an executive retreat held last week, abolished the Monday sit-at-home and directed workers and businesses to open on Mondays. It threatened to sanction anyone who continues to indulge in sit-at-home in defiance of its directive.

The state government had also promised to set up a task force to implement the directive.

The lingering sit-at-home disruptions was recently linked to the economic and fiscal downturn in the South-East region.

Anambra State had proposed N757 billion for its 2026 fiscal year. The amount is the smallest compared to other states in the region. Of the amount, it intends to raise N60 billion internally, about 12.7 per cent of the budget. Many had doubted the state’s ability to realise the proposed fiscal plan amid the continued sit-at-home on Mondays.

But responding to the move by the state government, IPOB insisted that Monday sit-at-home was a “civil disobedience”, stressing that no governor has lawful power to compel citizens to open their businesses or move about against their will.

It added that any task force against the continued sit-at-home by those willing to do so would amount to an illegal provocation.

In a statement yesterday, IPOB stated that Governor Chukwuma Soludo or any other governor, had no power to direct the people against their will, especially when their action is a peaceful, non-violent expression of conscience.

The statement, signed by the Media and Publicity Secretary of the IPOB, Emma Powerful, warned Soludo to stop threatening Ndi Anambra and Ndi Igbo, stressing that the people are not his enemies and that his duty is to protect them, not punish them.

The statement added that Soludo should be the first to recognise the elementary democratic principle called “civil disobedience—a peaceful refusal to cooperate with policies and conditions viewed as unjust.”

It added: “If businessmen, traders, students, professionals, elders and youths voluntarily choose to sit at home on Mondays as a silent protest against the continued detention and persecution of Nnamdi Kanu, that is their right. It is not a crime. It is not rebellion. It is not an offence.”