Anthony Iwuoma
Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, has hit hard at Simon Ekpa, the Finnish-Nigerian self-confessed disciple of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) describing him as a ‘bandit’.
Umahi deplored the way the pro-Biafra agitators are reportedly promoting carnage in the South-east and said Ebonyi State would never be part of such a Biafra.
Speaking during the elders/widows party, at the Ecumenical Centre, Abakaliki, the state capital, Umahi accused Ekpa and his group of terrorising the South-east region, and demanded that they must be flushed out, especially as next year’s general elections are around the corner.
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Umahi noted that the Biafra agitation had gone beyond Nnamdi Kanu just as he had feared.
“When this agitation for Biafra started, I told them that this matter will go beyond Kanu. And today, it has gone beyond Kanu. Every criminal says he is IPOB. Every criminal says he is Eastern Security Network (ESN),” the governor said.
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“Now, we have another bandit called Simon Ekpa. Is this the Biafra we desire? To be killing ourselves and displacing others? That’s why we said, in the heat of that crisis, that Ebonyi can never be part of Biafra. We are not Biafra.
“If Biafra is about killing ourselves, going to the market and shooting people, declaring sit-at-home and destroying the economy, then we cannot be part of it. These things are strange to our culture.
“They have killed a lot of Ebubeagu operatives, who are trying to protect our people. I ask all council people to give us information, because we are ready to enter the forests to flush out these bandits.”