Rochas Okorocha, governor of Imo state, has advised the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to desist from agitating for secession, saying the Igbo are not ready for another civil war.
Okorocha said this at a programme at the government house in Owerri, the state capital, on Tuesday.
He also urged the Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and other groups drumming support for the actualisation of Biafra to stop doing so.
He called on Igbo youth to redirect their agitation towards the actualisation of economic advancement of Igbo rather than asking for a new sovereign nation.
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On the recent sit-at-home order by IPOB and MASSOB, he said the exercise succeeded because the people, especially traders, wanted to avoid trouble.
He described the statement by the Arewa youths directing Igbo to leave the north as “nonsensical and inciting’’.
The governor said that Igbo were peaceful people, who had come a long way in contributing to the economic development of the country, adding that no other ethnic group had contributed as much.
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He called for the reorientation of youth to repair the broken political relations between the North and the East and end the existing hatred and division between them.
“We have failed as leaders hence the campaign of hate for one another; we need to take responsibility and end it,” he said.
“We need to rise and take steps to end it and get rid of the inherent hatred and division we inherited from the colonial masters.”
Okorocha also said the agitation over the leadership of the country by the different geo-political zones in the country was an ill-wind which had not done something good to the country.
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He, therefore, called on all Nigerians to guard against hatred and unite to fix broken relationships.
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