The Southeast Governors Forum has decried the reported attack on the former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, allegedly by some members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra at an Igbo summit in Nuremberg, Germany.
Reacting to the incident on Sunday in Abakaliki, the Chairman of the forum, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi, said that the attack was unnecessary.
In a statement issued by Mr Emmanuel Uzor, his Chief Press Secretary, Umahi said that the issue of insecurity in the southeast, cited by the group as its reason, was not peculiar to the zone.
He stated that insecurity was a national issue, which rested squarely on the Federal Government’s control.
He further stated that the governors of the southeast had no issues with IPOB to warrant the group’s threat to attack them anywhere abroad.
The governor described the threat as “empty,” saying that the group lacked the power to track the governors around the globe.
He said: “They have no spread and power to do so because they cannot see any governor to attack.”
He opined that the group’s directive to its members to attack them would add no value toward the realisation of the agitation for Biafra.
He said: “The IPOB members abroad should come home and settle any issues they hold against the governors, instead of doing so in a foreign land.
“Attacking governors in a foreign land is a wild goose chase. We love the IPOB members because they are our children.”
Umahi further noted that IPOB could not achieve Biafra alone except it collaborated with all the critical stakeholders, including the governors.
He said: “They don’t need to attack the governors to achieve Biafra and we warn them not to allow political opportunists to use them to destroy the zone.
“They should unite and work with the governors and Ohaneze Ndigbo to achieve a president of Igbo extraction in 2023, instead of fighting the governors.
“We want them to be close to us, instead of taking the struggle to international arena.”
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