South-East governors on Sunday described the order given by Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) to its members to attack governors and other Igbo leaders as “empty threat”.
speaking under the auspices of the Southeast Governors Forum (SGF), the governors argued that attacking them would not solve the problem of IPOB’s agitation for the state of Biafra.
SGF Chairman and Ebonyi State David Umahi in a statement by his media aide Emmanuel Uzo, said: “They have no such spread and powers to track down South-East governors for attack anywhere in the world. They are too small. I don’t want to say they sound so cowardly, but they can’t see the governors to attack.”
Umahi said the governors had no problem IPOB members to warrant such an order.
According to him, the insecurity in the Southeast was a national challenge that was under the Federal Government’s command and control.
He said: “If there is any issue IPOB holds against the governors, they should come home to settle it in Igboland instead of a foreign land.
“What happened was a security issue which was within the purview of the Federal Government. Attacking governors in a foreign land is a wild goose chase. We love them because they are our children.
“IPOB cannot achieve Biafra alone, except with the collaboration of all stakeholders including the governors. They don’t need to attack the governors to achieve Biafra.”
The governor warned them not to allow political opportunists to use them to destroy the Southeast.
“They should come together and work with the governors and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo to achieve the Igbo presidency in 2023 instead of fighting the governors. We want them to be close to us instead of taking the struggle to the international arena,” Umahi said.
Last weekend, IPOB attacked former Deputy Senate President Ekweremadu was in Nuremberg, Germany, to speak at the Second Annual Cultural Festival and Convention organized by Ndi-Igbo Germany when he was attacked by people who claimed to be sympathisers of IPOB, claiming that he did not represent the southeast appropriately.
They also threatened to mete out the same treatment to governors and other leaders from the region on visitation to Europe.
The group listed other leaders on its watch list to include Governor Dave Umahi (Ebonyi); Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu); Willie Obiano (Anambra); Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Ohanaeze Ndigbo President-General Nnia Nwodo.
The 64-seconds video of the attack on Ekweremadu, which went viral, showed how the protesters physically assaulted the senator and tore his traditional jumper (Isi Agu) to shreds before he was spirited away by the organisers from the venue of the event before the police were called in.
