Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has berated the operational mode of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
He spoke while addressing some Igbo youths, Tuesday, over the quit notice issued to Igbos living in the North by a coalition of Northern youths.
According to him, the statement was ill-informed, stressing that many of them fanning the embers of war would not be able to grapple with its effects if their prayers are answered.
“The statement by IPOB and Arewa youths are nonsensical and ill-informed. These groups of people may not have seen the effects of the civil war. And these non-Igbos who support and encourage IPOB should desist because when the chips are down, they will be nowhere to be found,” Okorocha stated.
“You cannot be calling for a sovereign state while in a sovereign nation. Nobody would look kindly to such an agitation and most of us would have expected IPOB to focus on tangible issues of benefit to the Igbo nation. Nobody would criticise IPOB if it was something like a Movement for the Economic Survival of Ndigbo (MESON).”
Okorocha noted that the Igbos have made costly sacrifices for the nation’s unity and have been at the forefront of development in other parts of the country.
“Ndigbo has sacrificed their material resources and blood, for the unity of Nigeria, more than any other people in Nigeria. Igbos developed Lagos, Abuja and other major cities of the country and cannot be taken for granted in Nigeria.”