The outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) says its convicted leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has directed “total cancellation” of sit-at-home across Nigeria’s South-east.
IPOB spokesperson, Emma Powerful, disclosed this in a statement forwarded to PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday.
Mr Powerful said Mr Kanu announced that the illegal directive has been “officially and permanently cancelled” with effect from tomorrow, Monday, 9 February 2026.
“This directive comes directly from Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu himself, who has once again staked everything on the line to ensure that our children return to school every Monday and that our people go about their lawful businesses without fear, intimidation, or molestation,” he said.
The IPOB spokesperson said those in doubt that Mr Kanu, by himself, terminated the infamous Monday sit-at-home in the region should visit him at the Sokoto prison facility for confirmation.
“There is now no need, excuse, or justification for anyone to stay at home on Mondays.
“All markets, schools, offices, transport services, and economic activities must resume fully and normally. From tomorrow, the Monday sit-at-home is over,” he said.
Mr Powerful stressed that Mr Kanu has made it clear that anyone or group attempting to enforce the sit-at-home in the South-east henceforth is acting against his directive.
“Such persons are enemies of our people and the Biafran cause. They will be pursued to the ends of the earth and confronted until they are completely defeated,” he stated.
“We therefore call on all our people across the South-east to come out tomorrow, open their shops, go to work, and send their children to school without fear.”
‘Don’t threaten, demolish shops of willful observers’
Mr Powerful recalled the recent closure of the Onitsha Main Market by Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State due to traders’ noncompliance with the sit-at-home directive.
The spokesperson argued that IPOB has insisted that no governor has “the right to threaten, demolish or forcibly shut down businesses of traders who, out of conscience, choose to sit at home in solidarity with Mr Kanu.
“Any attempt by Governor Soludo or any other governor to intimidate our people with demolition threats or forced market closures will be firmly resisted,” he said.
Apparently reacting to Mr Soludo’s plan to renovate the Onitsha Main Market, Mr Powerful said any renovation, reconstruction, or improvement of markets that involves temporary relocation must be carried out only with the consent of all stakeholders.
“Adequate temporary trading sites must be provided before any such projects commence,” he said.
Like IPOB, like Simon Ekpa-led group
The announcement by IPOB came exactly a day after the Simon Ekpa-led pro-Biafra group, Biafra Liberation Army, also declared an end to the illegal sit-at-home directive in the South-east.
In a video clip circulating on Facebook on Saturday, a notorious terror kingpin simply identified as Angel De Makeup was heard announcing the end of the sit-at-home directive.
The terror kingpin, a member of the self-acclaimed pro-Biafra group which is linked to terror attacks in the region, said the permanent cancellation of the illegal directive followed a directive instruction from Mr Kanu, whom he described as “our supreme leader.”
“As the information reaching my table, (I am directed) to inform all Biafrans of an order from the highest command of the Biafra Restoration Movement, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi has reached us that Monday sit-at-home is cancelled from today,” he read out from a written note.
He was flanked by heavily armed men wearing security uniforms and standing in a forest with an IPOB flag, which had Mr Kanu’s photograph on it.
The terror kingpin suggested that with the latest directive from Mr Kanu, observance of the sit-at-home would now be voluntary.
“It will not be enforced henceforth,” he said.
He added that the last Monday sit-at-home directive on 2 February was declared in protest against Governor Soludo’s temporary closure of Onitsha Main Market.
“It will not happen again,” he said of the sit-at-home directive.
The terror kingpin urged traders and school children in the South-east to resume activities on Mondays without fear.
Like IPOB’s Mr Powerful, he said Mr Soludo should not force people to open for business if they willfully chose to stay at home in honour of Mr Kanu.
“Any intimidation from Soludo or any government will force us to react,” he said.
Angel De Makeup belongs to the same terror group as Ifeanyi Eze, popularly known as Gentle De Yahoo.
Mr Eze, who also claims to be a Biafran agitator, has been linked to some deadly attacks in the Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo State, including the murder of three of his fighters in the area.
He is a commander of the Biafra Liberation Army in Okigwe.
Background
This is not the first time Mr Kanu-led IPOB has declared an end to the sit-at-home in the South-east.
However, this is the first time Mr Ekpa-led self-acclaimed pro-Biafra group has announced the end of the illegal directive in the region.
The Ekpa-led group has been linked to the continued enforcement of the sit-at-home directive even after the IPOB led by Mr Kanu initially suspended the illegal directive.
The enforcement of the sit-at-home had resulted in deadly attacks and the destruction of goods for years.
PREMIUM TIMES has documented how the sit-at-home directive destroys businesses in the South-east, prevents residents from accessing healthcare and even worsens food security in the region.
The illegal directive, usually observed on Mondays, began in the South-east in August 2021 when IPOB imposed it on residents of the region.
The directive was intended to pressure the Nigerian government to release IPOB’s convicted leader, Mr Kanu, who was facing terrorism charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja at the time.
The group, in August of the 2021, suspended the weekly directive, for the first time, limiting it to days Mr Kanu appeared in court.
However, residents of Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia and Anambra states continued to observe the directive largely out of fear.
Gunmen, linked to the Mr Ekpa-led group, who often enforced the illegal directive, have killed many residents and punished others for flouting the directive.
IPOB repeatedly distanced itself from the continued enforcement, insisting that those behind it were criminals exploiting the group’s name.
Despite this, Mr Ekpa, a Finland-based Biafran agitator, persisted in declaring the sit-at-home.
For the second time, in July 2023, Mr Kanu, through his lawyer Aloy Ejimakor, directed Mr Ekpa to halt the action. Mr Ekpa dismissed the directive as fake, insisting the sit-at-home would continue unless Mr Kanu personally addressed him in Finland.
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Efforts by Igbo leaders, including Enugu Governor Peter Mbah, Anambra Governor Mr Soludo, and Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to end the practice yielded limited results.
While the sit-at-home has largely disappeared in Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi states, it persists in Anambra and Imo.
Mr Kanu was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism in November, while Mr Ekpa received a six-year prison sentence in Finland for similar offences which he committed in South-east Nigeria.
