RAYMOND OZOJI reports
Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo of Anambra State has threatened that he would name all the politicians sponsoring and masterminding enforcement of the 5 year old illegal Monday Sit-At-Home in the state.
Soludo who made the threat while briefing newsmen at the new government house Awka, said it was time to call a spade a spade because the said illegal Monday Sit-At-Home must end whether the sponsors like it or not.
The governor who gave updates on the closure of Onitsha Main Market, emphasized that time has come to prove to those behind the illegal sit-at-home practice in the state that the soul of Anambra must be reclaimed and that the state would no longer tolerate such level of economic sabotage and illegality anymore.
The governor emphasized that government has exercised enough restraint since 2022 and 2023 fighting insecurity and lawlessness in the state; that anyone claiming that he hasn't opened his shop or business premises because of insecurity is just being delusional.
He therefore called on the citizenry to join forces with the government against saboteurs, criminal elements and their sponsors particularly some politicians who think the illegal Monday Sit-At-Home is something to play transient politics with just to score cheap political points.
He noted that by encouraging it, the sponsors are sabotaging their own people thereby calling it politics. The governor said such were not politics but about the livelihoods of the people; about the future of the children; about the future of the poor woman on the streets who has to hawk something on Monday before they can eck out daily breads.
Soludo maintained that it was about investors who were already flooding in to have the comfort that they have a full work week and about prosperity and security of the state, pointing out that if 20% of the work days in a year, then the prosperity of the state is dampened.
The governor therefore reinforced his opinion that between 2024 and 2025, the state has been very patient and pleading with traders particularly to open their shops on Mondays but stressed that in this year 2026, the no Monday Sit-At-Home order would be enforced to the latter because any markets that refused to open for commerce on Mondays would be shutdown completely.
He was of the opinion that shops in the defaulting markets would be reallocated to people who are ready to do businesses on Mondays and the rest of the week. According to him, Onitsha Main Market, Bridge Head Market, Building Materials International Market Ogidi, Nnewi Market and other markets must be opened for business on Mondays.
The governor however made it categorically clear that if Onitsha Main Market declined opening on Monday 2nd February, 2026 for business transactions, then it would be shutdown for another two weeks and if the defiance continued, the market would be taken over by the state government and revocations would take place because Onitsha Main Market, according to him, is a government property.
Governor Soludo therefore reiterated that if the sponsors of Monday Sit-At-Home do not refrain from such evil forthwith, he would have no other choice but to expose them and they would face the consequences of their evil deeds.
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