Human rights lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has condemned the shutdown of the Onitsha Main Market by Governor Charles Soludo, describing it as a form of collective punishment against innocent traders and law-abiding citizens.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Ejiofor insisted that the continued enforcement of the so-called Monday sit-at-home has no legal, moral, or ideological basis, stressing that the directive was long cancelled by IPOB.
He noted that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had “formally, expressly, and unequivocally” withdrawn the directive.
The lawyer argued that shutting down an entire economic nerve centre in response to criminal threats amounts to punishing productivity while emboldening those responsible for violence.
He said, “Security governance, if it is to deserve the name, must be precise, intelligence-driven, and squarely targeted at the actual architects and executors of violence.
“To shutter an entire market is neither strategic nor just.”
According to Ejiofor, any violence or coercion currently associated with sit-at-home orders cannot be attributed to IPOB or any legitimate protest movement.
Rather, he argued, such acts represent a “criminal resurrection of a dead directive,” allegedly hijacked and violently enforced by lawless elements.
The lawyer stated, “What followed was not civil disobedience, not political protest, and certainly not ideological resistance.
“It is a parasitic enterprise, feeding off intimidation, coercion, and the deliberate manufacture of terror among innocent citizens.”
Ejiofor said the decision to close the Onitsha Main Market, one of the largest commercial hubs in the Southeast, was deeply troubling and counterproductive.
He said, “It is against this backdrop that the decision to shut down the Onitsha Main Market must be interrogated with sobriety, proportionality, and an unflinching fidelity to the rule of law.
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“Collective punishment of traders and law-abiding citizens, who are themselves hostages of fear, cannot, and must not, masquerade as security policy.”
Ejiofor warned that policies which blur the line between criminality and legitimate commerce risk producing the opposite of their intended effect, strengthening the hand of violent actors while penalising innocent enterprise.
He reiterated that the Monday sit-at-home no longer exists in any legitimate sense and should not be used as justification for actions that deepen economic hardship and public fear.
“The Monday sit-at-home enjoys no legitimacy, commands no authority, and possesses no justification whatsoever – legal, moral, or otherwise,” Ejiofor said.
