FG reads riot act, insists election will hold in Anambra

• State govt adopts Saturdays as school days to replace Mondays’ sit-at-home
• Imo residents, traders device strategy to comply with directive

The Federal Government has vowed to deal decisively with anyone who attempts to disrupt the November 6, 2021 Anambra governorship election.

This is coming as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) insisted that the election would hold as scheduled. National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, who gave the warning, yesterday, at a meeting of the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), said the security agencies had been ordered to deal ruthlessly with troublemakers.

On his part, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission was determined to proceed with the poll as scheduled.

According to him, the deployment of non-sensitive materials and training of personnel for the election have been concluded. In another development, Anambra State government has announced that Saturdays will replace Mondays as school days due to the sit-at-home protest, which is still being observed in the South-East.

This was made known in a recent memo by the government titled, “Anambra State Government approves Saturdays as School Days’, adding that Saturday classes would commence on October 30, 2021.

The state Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Don Adinuba, who confirmed the statement, yesterday, said that all school heads had been directed to notify teachers, pupils and parents about the new development.

MEANWHILE, to avoid the danger associated with Monday’s sit-at-home order declared by IPOB, residents, traders and commercial motorists have now devised another strategy to comply with the directive.

The Guardian gathered that traders in the markets now open their businesses to sell to buyers every Monday between 5:00 a.m. and 7.30 a.m. before the enforcement of the order.

In the evening at about 6:00 p.m., some street traders display their wares, but on a skeletal form. But those, whose shops are hidden, do open partly.

However, there were mixed reactions over the proposed one-week sit-at-home order (from November 5 to 10, except Sunday, November 7) declared by the separatist group, as the issue came up on various radio stations and social media platforms.

While some people condemned the plan, others upheld it, saying that it would form the basis of releasing the IPOB’s leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, before his next arraignment in the Federal High Court, Abuja.

While social commentators, Chief Jude Ugbaja and Linda Anoruo, said it was not a better option, Chinedu Madu and others posited that since people were able to lock themselves indoors during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown ordered by the various governments last year, it could be repeated this time.