Govs To IPOB, MASSOB: Give Us Six Months To Negotiate With FG

South East Governors have appealed to agitators for
self-determination in the region to halt hostilities and allow them
negotiate solutions to age-long grievances with the Federal
Government within six months.

Chairman of the Southeast Governors’ Forum, Dave Umahi, who
demanded for understanding and time from the agitators, also said
only those who want the current state of insecurity and killings to
persist would oppose the recent ban on open grazing by governors of
southern states.

Ebonyi Governor Umahi spoke on Thursday while featuring on the
regular Ministerial Press Briefing organised by the Presidential
Communications Team at the Presidential villa, Abuja.

The Southeast has for years been a hotbed of separatist
activities with the Movement for the Actualisation of Biafra
(MASOB) and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leading the charge
against the Federal Government.

The Governor noted past governments failed to properly deal with
the issue of marginalisation, giving rise to MASSOB and IPOB).

He said: “I have offered along with governors to our youths,
present your demands in prints and hand over to us.

“There’s no region in this country today that you know does not
have one thing or the other against the federal government, but we
cannot sit down to discuss and that’s what you have demanded from
our youths whether banned or unbanned in so far as you are from
southeast.

“Let us see your demands, let us see your grievances and give us
six months to engage the federal government to address all these
because I believe in dialogue.

“I believe that we can sit down as a people to discuss and find
our differences, and we can learn from our differences and also we
can together discuss how we can strengthen our operation as a
people.”

Describing IPOB as “a child of necessity,” Umahi said: “Now, the
ESN is also a product of IPOB.

“You can see how this has multiplied but the point remains that
from the onset of matter, the past governments did not address the
matter properly because when your children cry for any reason, you
have to find out what is the problem, what are the reasons and you
fix it.

“I think those people were so badly ignored and that should not
have been. And so, what is happening today with regards to IPOB in
the Southeast is not a product of this government per se, but it is
a product of national governments that didn’t address the matters
from the outset.”

South East Governors have appealed to agitators for
self-determination in the region to halt hostilities and allow them
negotiate solutions to age-long grievances with the Federal
Government within six months.

Chairman of the Southeast Governors’ Forum, Dave Umahi, who
demanded for understanding and time from the agitators, also said
only those who want the current state of insecurity and killings to
persist would oppose the recent ban on open grazing by governors of
southern states.

Ebonyi Governor Umahi spoke on Thursday while featuring on the
regular Ministerial Press Briefing organised by the Presidential
Communications Team at the Presidential villa, Abuja.

The Southeast has for years been a hotbed of separatist
activities with the Movement for the Actualisation of Biafra
(MASOB) and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leading the charge
against the Federal Government.

The Governor noted past governments failed to properly deal with
the issue of marginalisation, giving rise to MASSOB and IPOB).

He said: “I have offered along with governors to our youths,
present your demands in prints and hand over to us.

“There’s no region in this country today that you know does not
have one thing or the other against the federal government, but we
cannot sit down to discuss and that’s what you have demanded from
our youths whether banned or unbanned in so far as you are from
southeast.

“Let us see your demands, let us see your grievances and give us
six months to engage the federal government to address all these
because I believe in dialogue.

“I believe that we can sit down as a people to discuss and find
our differences, and we can learn from our differences and also we
can together discuss how we can strengthen our operation as a
people.”

Describing IPOB as “a child of necessity,” Umahi said: “Now, the
ESN is also a product of IPOB.

“You can see how this has multiplied but the point remains that
from the onset of matter, the past governments did not address the
matter properly because when your children cry for any reason, you
have to find out what is the problem, what are the reasons and you
fix it.

“I think those people were so badly ignored and that should not
have been. And so, what is happening today with regards to IPOB in
the Southeast is not a product of this government per se, but it is
a product of national governments that didn’t address the matters
from the outset.”