Traditional Independence Day march-past did not take place in Anambra on Friday as workers unions, students and other bodies that usually colourise the event failed to turn up.

The well-decorated Ekwueme Square, Awka venue for the celebration was deserted, leaving Governor Willie Obiano without the required bodies to give him salute at the event, Peoples Gazette learnt.

Security tensions in Anambra, like other southeastern states heightened in the weeks preceding Nigeria’s 61st independence anniversary as gunmen went on rampage, killing, maiming and destroying residents’ properties.

Prominent physician Chike Akunyili was murdered gruesomely at Nkpor on Tuesday while travelling on the Onitsha-Enugu highway.

The killing of the husband of late information minister Dora Akunyili sparked widespread fears and condemnation around the country and may have informed while citizens shunned the celebration.

The police confirmed that the killers also carried out their grisly acts on other citizens around the area at the time. It said one person was beheaded by the attackers.

Before then, separatist group IPOB had been enforcing a sit-at-home order in South-East. Flouters of the order have been met with crude violence though IPOB denies attacking the Igbos. It claims the lockdown had been suspended.

Still, IPOB had earlier announced an October 1 stay-at-home for residents of the South-East in protest for the continued incerceration of their leader Nnamdi Kanu by the Muhammadu Buhari regime.

IPOB denies involvement in the attacks.

The Gazette learnt that security was beefed up around the state towards countering IPOB’s Independence Day threat.

Nonetheless, businesses and marketplaces in Onitsha, Enugu, Owerri, Onitsha remained largely shut on October 1.