The South-East governors have pledged their commitment to an indivisible and united Nigeria, brushing aside IPOB’s call for secession and the realisation of the Biafra Republic.

The Chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum, Governor David Umahi, gave the assurance in Abuja at a media event organised by the Presidential Media Team.

“We do not want to secede from Nigeria. But we want a Nigeria where justice and equity prevail. We want peace,” stated the governor.

Mr Umahi, who lamented the increasing insecurity in the south-eastern region, noted that bandits had hijacked the peaceful agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other groups in the area.

“The situation in the South-East right now is a situation in which non-violent approach of IPOB at the beginning has been hijacked by bandits, by cultists, by criminals,” he claimed.

He, however, described the insinuation that “foreign mercenaries” are responsible for the large-scale violence and chaos experienced in the South-East as mere war propaganda.

According to him, some Nigerians from the South-East are responsible for the killings, the burning down of police stations, and destruction of property in the region.

The governor added the agitation for a better region by Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, IPOB, and the Eastern Security Network were offshoots of years of neglect by previous governments.

He condemned the mayhem in the region and urged security operatives to intensify efforts in checking the situation.

The governor also called on South-East youths to aggregate their demands and present them to their governors to be tabled before President Muhammadu Buhari.

On the recently inaugurated security outfit in the region, code-named Ebube Agu, Mr Umahi said the outfit was legitimate, adding that peace-loving citizens in the region have nothing to fear.

Condemning the continued razing of INEC’s facilities, Mr Umahi noted, “Some of them (arsonists) have been indoctrinated to believe that there will be no election in 2023, and that is very dangerous because if you say that there will be no election in your region, then the National Assembly could make an emergency law to say there will be emergency rule there and there is nothing you can do about it.”

He added, “So it is a very terrible mindset for anybody to be doing this because INEC offices have not been burnt in South-West or other parts of the country. So, we don’t know who is doing this, but I know that they are criminals.”

(NAN)