From Magnus Eze, Enugu and Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
Chairman, South East Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, yesterday, claimed that criminals have hijacked the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Though, the governor said the security situation in the zone was not totally different from what was obtainable in other regions of the country, he admitted that that of the South East was a bit complicated, warning that other groups may emerge to counter the secessionist agitations for Biafra.
Umahi, who spoke on a live breakfast programme monitored by Daily Sun alleged that some persons living abroad had taken control of the agitation for the state of Biafra and continued to play on the emotions of the people.
On Tuesday, Enyinnaya Abaribe, senate minority leader, had said there were more than 30 separatist organisations in the South East.
When asked if he agreed with Abaribe, Umahi said: “He is talking from the point of his information, but as a governor, I don’t see that.”
He said the two separatist groups in the region remain IPOB and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).
The governor said while MASSOB has never been violent in its approach, IPOB had fuelled violence through messages of threats and killings.
“MASSOB has never been violent; they are approachable and they tend to reason with us. But this other people, IPOB, their command is never in the country and every one of them stays out and dishes out messages of bitterness and messages of threats and fear and killings and they are not here with us to feel the pains.
“So, these are just the two groups that I can talk about. But I fear that if IPOB does not call their people to order, and stop these threats and killings and all that, other groups will rise up to counter it because there is no way the South East would be grounded. There is no way South East will be sitting at home while other parts of the country will be doing businesses, whereas we are the people that should be moving because we earn our living by moving.”
Umahi said the sit-at-home order in the South East won’t be obeyed if there was enough security presence in the region.
“If you have a policeman to everybody, nobody is going to obey any sit-at-home, nobody is going to obey that. We are going to do what we have been doing to safeguard the lives of our people, because we’ve got the confidence of our people, and you cannot have Biafra the way they are going about it,” he said.
The governor also shut down the insinuation that criminals from outside were perpetrating crimes in the region saying “we know that it is our people that are killing our people.”
He said his colleagues working with other South East leaders were bent on finding lasting solution to grievances of people of the zone, especially the youth.
He lamented that restiveness had endured in the region because a lot of people had been brainwashed and misinformed into believing that some persons were fighting for them.
He said leaders in the zone had not condemned the activities of IPOB and gunmen for fear of being attacked since they did not have security protection.
The governor, however, said the situation was changing as “they are beginning to say that if you are fighting for us, why are you killing us, by your words and broadcast, you make ways for us to be killed. And we will no longer tolerate that.”