Abia State Governor Ikpeazu Calls For Dialogue With IPOB

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has called on the Federal Government to dialogue with the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu.

Ikpeazu stated this during an interview with newsmen over the weekend.

He said negotiation between the federal government and Kanu’s group would bring about peace and justice in the Southeast.

Ikpeazu pointed out that some of the agitations of IPOB are legitimate and should be listened to.

He said: “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 the 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 a ransom is paid.

“I believe that there is some ideological sense in what these people in the South East 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.”

Ikpeazu added that when the IPOB gives sit-at-home order; the governors are unable to counter the order effectively because they do not have control over the Federal police, which are neither adequate nor well equipped to deal with security challenges.

He said further, “The problem is further compounded by the fact that there is the proliferation of small arms in the hands of people who should not have them. We also have an ill-equipped, inadequate, and underfunded police system in the land.

“If you call governors the chief security officers of their states and they cannot determine the number of policemen they can deploy and the kind of equipment to use, then it becomes extremely difficult for governors to take control of security issues in the South East. The Southeast governors are handicapped but we are trying our best”.