Governor of Ebonyi State, who is also the Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum David Umahi, had stated that most elites in the region do not want Biafra.
Describing agitations for Biafra as madness, he said what southeasterners want is to be treated equally like other regions.
Umahi stated this while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday morning.
“Every elite in the south-east is not desirous of Biafra. We don’t want Biafra. We only want to be treated equally like other regions in Nigeria,” he said.
“So, this idea of Biafra, Biafra is madness”.
The All Progressives Congress chieftain lamented the violence that has engulfed the region.
According to the Ebonyi governor, it stated as a cry against marginalisation but later turned into violence.
“You can never get a nation out of a nation by the kind of hate speeches being dished out and then from hate speeches to threats of killings and actual killings and formation of militant groups,” he said.
“If you’re fighting to protect us so why are you killing us? We are the ones killing ourselves. Occasionally, people are imported from outside to do these killings but majorly, like in my state, all the people that we have caught, all came from the south-east”.
While appealing to youths in the region, Umahi stated that governors are ready to do all they can to get agitators empowered.
The governor urged agitators to come out and engage government in dialogue.
“Whatever is your problem, is it unemployment, you have nothing doing? We are going to leave every other thing to make sure you are empowered. The only thing is that when you are in the bush, we don’t have access to you. You have to come out of the bush and work with us to empower you,” he said.
“But when you say no, that you will go in the name of agitations to cause criminality, we will isolate you as a criminal and this is where we are and we are very serious about it”
