By Gideon Njoku
In what could be termed a surprise submission by a Governor from the South-east, Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, said the Federal Government needs go to the negotiating table with the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB.
This is a deviation from the stand of the South-east Governors who, in 2017, backed the Federal Government when it proscribed IPOB, and termed it a terrorist organization.
Ikpeazu was one of the Governors who endorsed the prescription.
But speaking to Vanguard Newspapers in Abuja on Sunday, Ikpeazu said there is some sense in what IPOB has been saying. He, also, submitted that IPOB was not as bad as it is being termed, and definitely not anywhere as bad horrible as the Bandits which have been operating in the North-east and the North-west.
The Governor said going to the negotiating table with IPOB has become imperative for peace and justice to reign.
Ikpeazu: “We must engage with IPOB. Yes, we must find a way to talk about the issues at stake. These people are not as bad as the ones in the North-east or North-west who go to schools and seize the whole population of teachers and students or invade the Mosques and Churches and kidnap all the worshippers and nobody can find them until ransom is paid.”
Continuing, the Governor said: “I believe that there is some ideological sense in what these people are saying. There is something to listen to even though it is criminal to take up arms against the State. There is a message they are trying to pass in the process.
“We need confidence building among ourselves rather than use words that we should not use even as leaders. Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder, but the solution is not too difficult to find.”
IPOB is a separatist group in the South-east seeking for independence from Nigeria for its own country to be called the Republic of Biafra.
Its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is in the custody of the Federal Government being prosecuted for issues relating to alleged terrorism and treasonable felony.
Since his arrest, the agitation has taken a violent bend with his followers declaring a weekly (Mondays) sit-at-home order which has cost the Zone lives, destruction of businesses and billions of Naira.
And even though it has officially restricted the order to only the days Kanu would appear in Court, the order is still being enforced by those the leadership of IPOB dismisses as a rogue group.
But IPOB has declared it would shut-down the South-east for one month if Kanu is not brought to Court on October 21, the day the case was adjourned to. The last date it was adjourned to, he was not brought to Court due to what the FG said was logistic reasons.
IPOB’s efforts to lobby groups in other Zones to join it in the one month strike was rebuffed by both the Afenifere and the Arewa Youths Forum which wished the South-east 10 more years of sit-at-home.
Kanu, the leader of IPOB is from Ikpeazu’s State, Abia.
Imo and Anambra, and to an extent, Ebonyi, have, instructively, remained the main centres of its recent activities.
