The lead counsel for the Indigenous People of Biafra, Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has described a sit-at-home order reportedly scheduled for Monday, as fake and fraudulent, urging residents of Nigeria’s South-East to disregard it.
Ejiofor said the group did not authorize the directive, distancing IPOB from a statement circulated on Saturday and signed by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful.
The statement was titled, “IPOB declares Biafra-wide solidarity lockdown on Monday, February 2, 2026, in unwavering support for Onitsha traders and demand for the immediate release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”
It read: “The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, under the leadership of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, hereby declares a Biafra-wide solidarity strike, a complete lockdown of all economic activities across Igboland and wider Biafran territories, on Monday, February 2, 2026″.
The directive was in an apparent move to counter the order by Governor Charles Soludo for traders to return to their trading activities in Anambra State on Mondays. However, in response, Ejiofor said: “once again, the well-worn theatre of misinformation has opened its curtains, this time with a particularly lazy script and an insultingly predictable cast.”
“Late yesterday, a report was widely circulated alleging that a total lockdown of Ala-Igbo had been ordered under the guise of a sit-at-home directive purportedly issued by ‘Emma Powerful,’ slated for Monday, February 2, 2026. “Let it be stated clearly, unequivocally, and without ambiguity: this directive is fake, a phantom, a calculated falsehood” he said.