₦airaland Forum

Joe Igbokwe has shared a fiery reaction from the Eculaw Group that cuts straight to the heart of the ongoing sit-at-home controversy in the South-East in a post on his official Facebook page. In a statement dripping with frustration and irony, the group questioned the logic of traders and residents who reject government authority while submitting to illegal directives enforced through fear.

“We have rights! Governor Soludo cannot force us to open our shops! But Nnamdi Kanu can force them to close them?” the Eculaw Group stated. The remark, now circulating widely on social media after being shared by Igbokwe, reflects growing anger among voices in the region who believe the sit-at-home practice has become irrational, self-destructive, and hypocritical.

The comment comes amid renewed debate over Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s firm stance against Monday market closures. Soludo recently warned that shops deliberately closed during sit-at-home days could be taken over and reassigned to traders willing to operate. His position has drawn mixed reactions, with some invoking “rights” and personal freedom to resist his directive.

However, the Eculaw Group’s response flips that argument on its head. The group questioned why the same people who loudly defend their rights against an elected governor seem powerless when threatened by non-state actors. If rights truly matter, they argued, then those rights should apply consistently—not selectively depending on who is issuing the order.

Joe Igbokwe’s decision to share the statement aligns with his long-held criticism of what he describes as self-inflicted damage in the South-East. He has repeatedly argued that the region cannot claim marginalisation while actively shutting down its own economy through fear-driven compliance. According to him, there is a legitimate government in place, and surrendering authority to intimidation only deepens the crisis.

At the centre of the debate is Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), whose name continues to be associated—directly or indirectly—with sit-at-home enforcement. While IPOB has at times denied issuing sit-at-home orders, the fear generated by armed enforcers has kept markets, schools, and roads deserted on Mondays.

Terrorist sympathizers are always brain dead

Onitsha main market belongs to the Anambra state government as enshrined in the Anambra state market and Parks law . That's why the government can dissolve the market union and appoint a caretaker as it wishes. The plazas and shops may be privately owned but the market as a unit of trade is owned by the government including all land within the market. Soludo is their landlord.

I don't understand how people on that side think though...


I saw some trader recently raining curses and abuses on soludo. For trying to end sit at home.


It's confusing to me how they reason walai!

Ezewuzie01:
Onitsha main market belongs to the Anambra state government as enshrined in the Anambra state market and Parks law . That's why the government can dissolve the market union and appoint a caretaker as it wishes. The plazas and shops may be privately owned but the market as a unit of trade is owned by the government including all land within the market. Soludo is their landlord.

so let Soludo demolish the market and use the place to build brothels for politicians... That will be more profitable to the state..

Mad people everywhere..

Kanu never forced people to close shop


Something settled in court


We just practice hate in this country

If we are to be honest with ourselves and do away with emotions, we will admit to the fact that most people who locked their shops to sit at home on Mondays didn't do so willingly and voluntarily. Over 80 percent of the population never liked it

They keyed into the movement due to fear of the unknown. I was in Anambra when they started the sit at home order. Heavily armed guys known as unknown gun men would invade markets and shoot sporadically to threaten those who disobeyed the order. I lost count of the number of times they came to Ekwulobia to shoot. On countless occasions, we had to run for our lives because of theybget hold of you, Rip is your case

They visited schools, blocked roads and attacked Travellers. Lots of people were killed. Such carried out activities were the main reasons people started staying indoors on Mondays. Nobody should make you believe people are doing so willingly in solidarity of anyone. It was something that was started and initiated through threats, loss of lives, fear of unknown and destruction of properties. I know the number of times we had to flee from Neco examination centres because they were going from one school to another, flogging both students and teachers. There was one morning they caught one man driving Keke on a Monday morning. They burnt his Keke and made him undergo some punishment. It was God that said his time wasn't up, else, they would have wasted him.

Now, whether the governor has right to order business owners to open their shops on Mondays or not is least of my concern. Whether you open your shop or not is least of my problem. I don't fvcking care

I am only correcting the impression of some people's claim which says People don't open on Mondays because they sit at home on that day in solidarity with someone. That's a fat lie. They were forced against their will to sit at home. I said they were threatened to do so against their will. You don't force people into a movement against their will and tag it solidarity.

There is a guy that's always online chanting support for the sit at home. I have seen his posts and comments in so many places. He is my friend and relative. He is based in Lagos.

While his Children go to school on Monday, his wife will go to the bank where she works, this guy will prepare and go to his shop in Lagos. He will sit in his shop somewhere in Lagos on Monday and be advising people in Anambra to sit at home in solidarity of someone. At the peak of unknown gunmen, his sister wrote her WAEC freely in Lagos, while he was online applauding the obstruction of the exam in the East.

Lots of people are like that. While they go about their business and activities on Monday in other states in Nigeria and outside the country, they will come online to encourage you to sit at him in solidarity of someone. If the governor says do not open your shop for 1 week, respectfully sit at home and abide by his orders. Whether he has such power to make such declaration or not shouldn't be your problem for now. Your own is to respect it till maybe a court of competent jurisdiction says otherwise.

Any justice wey dead body get na nọnsense because who die don lose forever. I Wil be online to read reports.

Before you twist what I wrote to comment off point just to justify what you have in your head, read it through. Because I know some of you don't read to understand but to comment and insult people, I won't be disappointed to read otherwise

Okey Aliyu

brain54:
I don't understand how people on that side think though...


I saw some trader recently raining curses and abuses on soludo. For trying to end sit at home.


It's confusing to me how they reason walai!

Soludo is terrible at people management. He should go and take classes from Governor Otti

gozmok1:
I am only correcting the impression of some people's claim which says People don't open on Mondays because they sit at home on that day in solidarity with someone. That's a fat lie. They were forced against their will to sit at home. I said they were threatened to do so against their will. You don't force people into a movement against their will and tag it solidarity.

Then Soludo should recognise this and provide security so shop owners can safely open their shops on Monday instead of asking shop owners to go risk their lives.

Switruth:
so let Soludo demolish the market and use the place to build brothels for politicians... That will be more profitable to the state..

Mad people everywhere..

Just say you would like the place to be a brothel.

The way you lay your bed, so you shall lie on it

https://www.nairaland.com/7226905/while-ugm-vacation

Igbokwe is an elder and should be circumspect as one. What did he say when UGM terrorists were killing people all over the SE and especially Anambra in this case because they flouted the sit at home order ? Government has guns, UGM terrorists also have guns meanwhile, the government's job is to protect citizens from people like UGM terrorists who became a law unto themselves and the larger society therefore, if ordinary citizens decide to obey an order by those who aren't afraid to shoot their guns then, it is an indictment on those who's job it is to provide security. If I were Soludo, I would have taken the Buba Marwa and Wike template in Lagos and Rivers states respectively and deployed a JTF into all the bushes and hideouts in Anambra and flush out those terrorists, he wouldn't need to beg or threaten anybo to open shops on Monday talk less of threatening to seize their shops

Switruth:
so let Soludo demolish the market and use the place to build brothels for politicians... That will be more profitable to the state..

Mad people everywhere..

I observed that u are heavily influenced by that incarcerated terrorist in sokoto prison.

Burob:
I observed that u are heavily influenced by that incarcerated terrorist in sokoto prison.

lol.. he is in sokoto yes But the Satan of sokoto ran away leaving his caliphate....

budaatum:
Then Soludo should recognise this and provide security so shop owners can safely open their shops on Monday instead of asking shop owners to go risk their lives.

Cowards, yet na them they chest beat pass, allow faceless unknown miscreants to hold them ransom.

Exactly my point!

brain54:
I don't understand how people on that side think though...


I saw some trader recently raining curses and abuses on soludo. For trying to end sit at home.


It's confusing to me how they reason walai!

Do u even understand whats sit at home ?
Why it happened?
What lead to it?

If Igbos should come out to protest for Biafra every Monday u would still be the one to complain

They sit at home on Monday as a form of protest you still complain

Switruth:
so let Soludo demolish the market and use the place to build brothels for politicians... That will be more profitable to the state..

Mad people everywhere..

Among IPOB terrorist group sighted . You will be ok. Why are you crying when the legit authority close the market but you keep mum when Terrorist clossed the market . You need to let us know where you belong to .

Switruth:
lol.. he is in sokoto yes But the Satan of sokoto ran away leaving his caliphate....

Just like Odemegwu Ojukwu abl?

Burob:
Just like Odemegwu Ojukwu abl?

Oh ok! You know his name is Satan of sokoto and he has fled abi?

[quote author=Burob post=138300776][/quote]I asked you a question na.....

Kriely:
Terrorist sympathizers are always brain dead

IPOB terrorists

Switruth:
so let Soludo demolish the market and use the place to build brothels for politicians... That will be more profitable to the state..


Mad people everywhere..

Lol

[quote author=Burob post=138300803][/quote]this Satan of sokoto wey run leave him caliphate dey pain you well well

SmartPolician:
Soludo is terrible at people management. He should go and take classes from Governor Otti

Let Otti win his second term first, then let him send the APB to professor Soludo, to inform him which hall he will be conducting the lecture @.