The governor of Abia state, Mr Okezie Ikpeazu says he is ready and willing to speak with the leader of the Indigenous people of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu in order allow for peace.
The governor who disclosed at the Government House in Umuahia on Saturday said he would like to speak with Kanu not on the basis of IPOB, but as a citizen of Abia state.
“I am the governor of Abia state and he is a citizen of Abia state. I have nothing personal against him and I don’t think he has anything personal against me. All of us are saying the same thing, that there is injustice, marginalization, but our point of divergence is the approach.
“If one is taking up arms Against the Nigerian Nation, what capacity does the person have to conclude it? Because I, as an individual, I am not a suicide Candidate. I saw a bit of the civil war and I don’t want to get people on a boat that is sailing to nowhere.
“Kanu is entitled to his opinion, views and approach, but I am also saying to him, that as a young boy who went to Maiduguri at the age of 16, the boundaries of the South East and Northern Nigeria is not in Umuahia or Ubakala Police Station, neither is it in Bende or Ohafia.
“We cannot afford to allow our territory be used as a battle field when the home of our opponents is thousands of mile away from our home. If properties are going to be destroyed during the battle, they will still be our property which we shall suffer to replace at the end of the whole exercise.”
“Fighting in one’s kitchen is one of the indices that defines lack of appreciation of the first rule of self-preservation, because after the fight, with which pot and plates, are you going use to eat?” Ikpeazu he said.
