SIT-AT-HOME: “Open Businesses From Monday Or Risk Shut Down” – Imo State Government Tells Banks, Others

 

The Imo State Commissioner for Trade and Investment, Simon Ebegbulem, has decried what he described as the colossus damage to Igbo businesses across the South East in the last couple of years as a result of the Mondays sit-at-home, warning that the state government will shut down businesses including banks who fail to open for businesses from Monday next week.

Addressing a press conference,in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on Thursday, Ebegbulem, extolled the strides of the Governor Hope Uzodinma-led administration, asserting that the governor has continued to bring development and deliver on the dividends of democracy to the people of the state in the last four years.

He likened the Monday sit-at-home campaign across the South-East to a poisonous arrow, adding that it was designed to impoverish the poor masses and aimed at destroying their means of livelihood.

He disclosed that the government has already rolled out palliatives to the people of the state, from across the 27 local government areas, to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal and its attendant challenges, ahead of further intervention by the Federal Government.

According to him, the State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma has directed relevant agencies to review stocks’ availability and start responding to the plight of the the people of the state, particularly, those in the most vulnerable category.

“Governor Hope Uzodinma has already drawn up plans and is distributing palliatives. We ascertain that the most vulnerable at the moment are PLWDs  because they are the one that go out to beg or do some menial jobs in order to put food in their table. This is across the 27 local council’s.

“Each beneficiary would go home with 10kg of rice, 12.5kg of beans, 10kg of maize; 10kg of spaghetti, salt and seasoning and other essentials. Aside that, high discount pavilions will be open all around, to allow people buy essentials at subsidized rate,” he stated.

He added that the distribution would go on to other categories of people according to the magnitude of their vulnerability.

He warned that the authorities will have no other option than to shut any market cluster or group that disrupt free flow of businesses in the state.