Awka – Residents of Anambra on Wednesday defied the pro-Biafra sit-at-home order as they resumed their normal socio-economic activities.

Government offices and other public places, including banks, schools, markets, motor parks and private offices in Awka, are all conducting their businesses without molestation.

Some of the residents interviewed called on the terrorist organisation to refrain from making the Federal Government regard the region as ingrate. Mr Charles Igwebuke, a civil servant, said that it was high time such directives should not be allowed to get to public domain.

“In the first place, which national tabloid published the directive that gave it the wide spread it enjoys for that is the beginning of the problem. “It has come to a point where every publishing house in the country should abide with the things that unite us as a nation rather than the things that separate us or be sectioned,” he said.

Mrs Ifeoma Nnameka, a banker, on her part said that though she heard the sit-at-home order but her employer never informed her. “I work with a bank that does not take nonsense from staff that don’t do what they should do in regard to this kind of directive that was issued by faceless individuals.

“There is no way I can obey such when the government that is in place to save lives and property didn’t say so and my bank has warned us not to obey such directives that they are not aware of,” she said.

Mr Kassim Ajayi, a tailor, said that he opened his shop for business when he saw his fellow Igbo brothers doing same.

“I have to open for business when all shops around me have opened for the day, for I heard on radio when the state government directed all residents to go about their normal day’s work without fear,” Ajayi said.

NAN recalls that the state Head of Service, Mr Larry Uduh, had earlier issued a statement that Gov. Willie Obiano has directed that work resumes on Wednesday (May 30) after the Democracy Day public holiday on May 29. The Federal High Court in Abuja had proscribed IPOB all over Nigeria and declared the pro-Biafra group a terrorist organisation.