Sophia Michaels
Following the threat of attack by enforcers of the one-week sit-at-home order in the South-East region of the country, schools in Imo state have been shut down on Monday, July 3, stalling academic activities.
Some of the places where schools were affected by the sit-at-home include Egbu, Wethedral, World Bank, Owerri-Onitsha road, Owerri -Aba, and Owerri-Port Harcourt roads, among others.
A school proprietor, along the MCC/Uratta road, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the schools decided to shut down because of a letter said to have been written to them by ‘’IPOB,” which stated that “schools in Owerri, have refused to obey the IPOB sit-at-home, and failure to observe it will result to severe punishment on defaults.”
“As a result of this, some of us communicated with other school proprietors and we agreed to stop our students from going to school on Mondays for now. Until security assures us of protection. We don’t want attacks simple. For over a year now, I think up to two years we have been opening for school activities. It is like this threat I think is like is serious.”
Another owner of a school, along Owerri-Aba road, said;
“I think we have do away with this sit-at-home of a thing. How come it is coming back again, I got information that this sit-at-home is not from original IPOB people. These people doing this should know that they are destroying Igboland. You can’t bring war to your own fathers land. By doing this, our education sector is suffering it.” he said
Other sectors affected, were the transportation companies operating outside Owerri, some major markets in the state, banking institutions among others.
