The Chairman of the South East Governors forum and Governor of Ebonyi
state, Chief David Umahi today (Saturday) said the governors of the zone had set up an investigative panel to look into the alleged killings arising from the clash between the proscribed members of Indegeneous people of Biafra, IPOB and the military in Abia State.
Governor Umahi in world press conference before departing Abakaliki to Abuja where he is expected to accompany President Muhammadu Buhari to UN conference disclosed that the governors of the zone in agreement with other leaders and stakeholders of Igbo extraction had to proscribe activities of IPOB to stop tension that was rising in the zone.
He said the proscription has achieved desired result, adding that the proscribedIPOB had lost its original ideal and was almost drifting into causing
unnecessary tension in the zone.
He noted that the IPOB activities in Abia state which sparked off
clash with the military went out of control of the group leader,
Nnamdi Kanu.
“When you put a small fire, the far it can go will not be controlled.
“The IPOB activities were gradually going out of Nnamdi Kanu. The Army Chief while briefing the governors of the zone in Enugu over the incident told us that Soldiers were passing on the way when IPOB members allegedly started throwing stones and other objects on them and it sparked off he clash between the group and the military”
“It is a shame that when this thing happened, a man called Charles
Ogbu had to send phone numbers of all South East governors, Deputy Senate
President and others and all our people could do was calling us to
insult us, talked to them anyhow. These are people that never
experienced any war in their lives”
“Our focus is how to save lives of every Nigerian and we believe in a united Nigeria. Lives of people are involved and we must not play politics with that”, he said .
Umahi however urged security agents to ensure safety of non-indigenes in
Ebonyi state and the entire South East zone while assuring that he would talk with Mr. President to order withdrawal of soldiers currently on Operation Python Dance to ease tension.
“Anybody that wants to foment troubles must be crushed and I want
security agencies to beef up security around all the non-indigenes in
the state and to report to me of any problem because we must maintain
the peace.
The Governor called on youths to stop insulting President Muhammadu
Buhari and leaders of the country as according to him was very bad.
He explained that the operation python dance which started yesterday
has no ulterior motive by the military.
