S/East governors should oversee discussion for political remedy to IPOB agitation — Okenwa

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A youth advocate, Mr. Chukwuma Ephraim Okenwa, has blasted governors of the S/East for not acting as expected to stop the sit-at-home order allegedly declared by members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to protest the continuous incarceration of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Mr. Okenwa, said it was believed that IPOB leadership adopted the sit-at-home to compel the governors to facilitate a political solution to their agitations, but regretted that the governors failed to explore the opportunity.

“I believe it was meant to compel the governors to press on Mr. President to consider political solution, unfortunately the governors did not wade in as expected, and that made the initiative an exercise in futility.

“Should the governors respond in the right direction as anticipated, I’m sure it would have served its purpose.

“We expected the governors since it took them to proscribe IPOB, to help press on the President to seek for political solution since this is a matter of agitation.

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“When a group is saying it doesn’t want to be part of Nigeria, that they’re being marginalized, then get the person on the table, find out what actually are the demands.

“And if those issues are sorted out and the group still insisted that they must divide the country, then you might use the law against such group.

“Let them come and prove their case, why they wanted the region to leave, and at that point, a referendum could be conducted to know wether the critical stakeholders are in support of that, because a person does not make a region, you need to hear from other critical stakeholders before you can consider that as what the region is saying,” Okenwa said.

Mr. Okenwa, alleged the governors were foot-dragging to lead the conversation, because of obvious fact of disconnect from the people.

“The marginalisation and defeatist mindset make the governors feel like they’re appointees of Mr. President, who probably might face some consequences or punitive measures, should they speak out as Chief executives of their states.

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“We want to see more engagement, ability to say, this is what we want for the region because they’re the leaders of the region, and they must be able to speak out at such critical moment.

“Howbeit, to even comply with instructions given by non state actors, full compliance by our governors is one that is least expected.

“IPOB core leadership had come out to disassociate themselves from the sit-at-home order, at the moment, what we actually have now is that the struggle had been hijacked because that’s one of the things about having a move driven by non state actors,” Mr. Okenwa argued.

He expressed the need for the governors and security agencies to invest more on intelligence, alleging that some unscrupulous persons had hijacked the Monday sit at home order, which IPOB leadership had long cancelled.

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“Again, I would say that our leaders and security leadership have not been proactive as they ought to. For instance, I expected them to spot recent attacks we had in the southeast, I expected them to have anticipated that some unscrupulous elements might cash into any of those things to further inflict fears on the people considering that the year just began.

“So I would have expected like hightend security presence, but they didn’t do that, unfortunately also those who commited the act were not captured immediately or even discovered after some days, so it’s a clear case of collapse in intelligence,” he said.

Mr. Okenwa, urged governors in the zone to rise the occasion and engage the federal government to douse tension in the region.

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