Governor Chukwuma Soludo was on Monday hailed by a crowd of traders during his second visit to the Onitsha Main Market in Anambra State in the space of days.

MyNigeria reported that Soludo placed the market on lockdown to discourage traders from observing sit-at-home imposed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The sit-at-home, observed since 2021 in protest against the incarceration of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, had threatened the state's economy.

However, last week Monday, Soludo visited the market, which was shut down on a Monday, warning the traders that if by the coming Monday they continue to observe sit-at-home, he would be forced to close the market for a month. He then locked the market for a week.

At the expiration of the week-long lockdown, Soludo visited the Onitsha Main Market on Monday (yesterday) and was excited to see traders everywhere conducting business.

Addressing a crowd, the governor said it was a delight to see the market operate on a Monday, the first in five years.

He said on X, "I am impressed by the clinical compliance to our directives by Traders of the Onitsha Main Market. In the last five years Onitsha main market has remained shut on Mondays.

"Yesterday, by the sheer will of our people, the jinx was broken! The market bustled like never before and the joy exuded by the traders was palpable.

"Indeed, history has been made today and the self-defeating Monday sit-at-home has been trashed into the dustbin of our regrettable history."

ASA