For the first time in the weekly compliance of the Indigenous People of Biafra ‘sit-at-home order’ in some parts of the South-East, residents of Imo State on Monday made a volte-face and carried out their usual daily business activities.
While vehicles flooded the roads, businesses, fast-food centres, artisans, roadside traders, supermarkets and mobile food vendors operated freely.
Although businesses at the major markets were not at their peak, a reasonable percentage of buying and selling went on in virtually all the local government areas of the state just as okada operators ferried passengers to their various destinations unhindered.
In Owerri, the state capital, Wetheral, Douglas, Tetlow, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Okigwe, Mbaise, Aba and Orlu roads were saturated with vehicles, even as intra-city bus services by the “BusImo Drivers” were available for commuters.
However, some fear-stricken ‘sensitive’ institutions such as banks public and private schools apprehensive of a possible invasion by hoodlums still remained adamant and refused to throw their doors open for customers, students and pupils.
