Governor Peter Mbah
Enugu seals 106 shops and 2 banks. The Governor Peter Mbah-led Enugu State government says it has sealed no fewer than 106 shops and two banks in the state for allegedly observing Monday’s sit-at-home order imposed by a factional leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Simon Ekpa.
The governor stated that all of the firms would remain closed for a week before his administration decided whether to sell them off or reopen them under specific terms.
The governor, in a statement by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, said 106 shops and two banks were sealed on Monday by officials of the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority.
Onyia, who was in charge of the exercise on Monday, said that it was in keeping with the governor’s warning. He added that Mbah’s goal was not to punish businesses but rather to promote and instill in merchants the idea of “no sit-at-home.”
“The government had directed business and shop owners to open for normal business on Monday and every work day, or have the defaulting business premises and shops sealed,” the SSG said in prior announcements to the good people and citizens of Enugu State.
“On Monday, July 24, 2023, that is exactly what the government did to carry out its earlier orders.
“All businesses that were sealed must stay sealed for a week after which they must furnish the state government with their most recent tax clearance certificates and all other pertinent revenue documentation so that it can review and take into account their formal letters requesting to be reopened.
All considerations will begin on Friday, July 28, 2023 at 2 p.m. at the Enugu State Capital Development Authority headquarters, once more.
Onyia said the sealing of the businesses was not punitive but ownership culture, “where all of us come together to fight the menace of the illegal sit-at-home in the state.
“We are taking it up not because Mbah is in the business of stopping economic growth but to fight those that think they can intimidate us.”
We are pursuing it because we want to battle those who believe they can scare us, not because Mbah is in the business of halting economic growth.
A task force assembled by the state government, he continued, will be present at the markets the following Monday to keep an eye on the situation.
“We identified closed stores and shut them.
“That is why ECTDA is here, and the owners should go through a process to get them reopened,” he declared.
According to The PUNCH, the governor of Enugu State outlawed Monday stay-at-home activities on June 5 because he believed they were harming the state’s economy.