Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has described the Biafra Republic being proposed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as madness, saying elites in the South-East region are not in support of breaking away from Nigeria.

“This idea of Biafra, Biafra is madness,” Mr Umahi said on Channels TV Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, adding that “Every elite in the south-east is not desirous of Biafra. We don’t want Biafra.”

Mr Umahi who is also the chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum is considered as speaking for all the governors of the region. According to him, what they all wanted from Nigeria was “to be treated equally like other regions in Nigeria.”

Criticising the mode of operation of IPOB, Mr Umahi said, “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.”

Blaming IPOB for the killings and increasing insecurity in the region, the Ebonyi governor said, “If you’re fighting to protect us, 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.”

Prolonged agitation for a Republic of Biafra has heightened in recent years with the South-East region experiencing serious insecurity as unknown gunmen continue to murder citizens and attack and raze public facilities in the region.

The region has remained chaotic since the Muhammadu Buhari-led regime abducted the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, in Kenya this year.