A former governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, a former Anambra State governor, says the Federal Government is pushing the southeast out of Nigeria.
Ezeife attributed the alleged being displayed by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to the rising agitations for secession.
He advised the Federal Government to be cautious in handling the treason case preferred against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), tasking the government to go strictly by the laws of the land in her continuation of the trial of the secessionist leader.
“Let me advise the federal government, they must be careful in dealing with this case. The detention and actions of the federal government against the southeast has raised Nnamdi Kanu’s prestige and reputation.
“Nnamdi Kanu is now seen as the authentic leader of the southeast. If you conduct a referendum today, eighty percent of people will be voting for biafra. Federal government needs to be careful and go strictly by the law. Government has been pushing southeast out of Nigeria, and the young men are reacting to it”.
The Leader of the Igbo Elders Council maintained that restructuring of Nigeria remains the panacea to the gale of secessionist agitations currently playing out in many parts of the country, as well as the economic downturn and infrastructure decadence adorned.
Ezeife also dissociated himself from the online news report linking him and Ohanaeze Ndigbo with the repatriation and subsequent re-arraignment of the IPOB leader.
He alleged that some disgruntled individuals had embarked on a destructive mission to tarnish his image over his steady criticisms against the Nigerian government’s ill-treatment to the southeast of Igbo extraction.
“I do not think Ohanaeze had anything in getting Nnamdi Kanu arrested. Of course, there had been manufactured stories putting my name as leader of a group of Ohanaeze members that lured Nnamdi Kanu to arrest. Infact, it is surprising that such a thing can come out,” he said.
“The reports they are giving about the arrest, nobody is sure where the arrest was done. Is it in London, Ethiopia, Kenya etc, all these have been mentioned, where the arrest was done. Remember that, to lure anybody to a place, you have to be there. I have not left Nigeria this year. It is rarely criminal to allege that Ohanaeze lured Nnamdi Kanu to where he was arrested.
“I think there is a group that is trying to tarnish my image, because I have seen many things in WhatsApp that bore my name when I don’t know anything about the post. It has been so frequent in the last few days, and I began to wonder, as to the conspiracy by some groups against me”.
