By Suleiman Anyalewechi
The Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, on Monday, February 23, 2026, ordered the closure of Nkwo Nnewi Market for alleged failure to heed to the no-sit-at-home directive of the Government.
The closure order is coming barely less than three weeks when the Governor reopened the Onitsha Main Market after he shut it down for a week on Monday January 26, 2026, for ignoring Government’s ban on the five-year-old sit-at-home order proclaimed in the South East region by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, to press home it’s demand for the release of its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
A statement on Monday by Law Mefor, the Anambra State Commissioner for Information , informed that the closure order will last for an initial one week.
According to the statement, the closure order which takes effect from Midnight Monday, February 23, 2026, will end on Monday, March 2, 2026.
“The Anambra State Government, hereby, informs the general public that the New Auto Spare Parts Association Market NASPA, Nkwo Nnewi, is closed for business”,Mefor stated.
The Commissioner said that the action of the Government follows the traders’ abysmal compliance with the no-sit-at-home directive from the state Government.
The closure order, he further stated, has been conveyed to the traders by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Trade and Markets, Chief Evarist Uba, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, AVM Ben Chiobi rtd, the Mayor of Nnewi North Local Council, Hon Echezona Anazodo, and the Ministry of Information.
The statement warned traders and other market users to stay away from the shut Market to avoid possible confrontation with law enforcement agents.
This is as the Government threatened to extend the period of closure should the traders continue to ignore Government directives.
Instructively, and curiously too, the traders’s alleged continued shunning of Monday activities is coming amidst Nnamdi Kanu’s formal cancellation of the sit-at-home order.
On the heels of the controversy that trailed the closure of the Onitsha Main Market and public outcry about its toll on the South East region, the IPOB leader had issued a statement ordering the discontinuation of the sit-at-home exercise.
But despite its official abrogation some major cities in the region including the Aba the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, have continued to observe the sit-at-home order
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