Rivers State government has dissociated itself from the pro-Biafra protests held by persons identified as “Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which engulfed Port Harcourt, the state capital, Tuesday, grounding business and economic activities, as well as vehicular movement on the Aba Road, Port Harcourt Central Business District’s busiest traffic artery.
Governor Nyesom Wike said in Port Harcourt “his administration does not support such demonstrations,” emphasising the indivisibility of Nigeria, and described “the actions of IPOB members as capable of stimulating chaos in the state.”
Governor Wike warned that as the chief security officer of the state, he swore to protect lives and property, and would not tolerate actions that would lead to the breakdown of law and order in the state.
Meanwhile, Rochas Okorocha, Imo State governor and chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors’ Forum, has said that the reported protests in some states capitals including Rivers, Anambra and Delta, in the name of actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra do not in any way have the support or blessing of the governors and leaders of the South-East geopolitical zone, either directly or indirectly.
Governor Okorocha noted that the reported protests in the mentioned states capitals, which later turned violent in some places, were said to have been carried out over Radio Biafra and the arrest of its director, one Nnamdi Kanu by security agents.
He said the governors of the South East deplore the ugly development, as “it is highly regrettable, especially when it was clear that such violent protests in the name of Biafra wouldn’t add any value to the development of the South East and the progress of the people of the area.
“The governors and leaders of the South East condemn the protests, especially when they were carried out in the name of Biafra. If a section of the people in the South East, or even the whole people in the geopolitical zone protest over the bad shape of the federal roads in the area, or protest over the total negligence of the geopolitical zone, every governor and leader in the area would support that; but not to protest over an issue that is neither here nor there.”
The Imo governor said that the unity of Nigeria was not negotiable, and the South East people strongly believe in that unity and would work assiduously to ensure its sustenance.
It would be recalled that thousands of people on Tuesday staged peaceful protests in Port Harcourt, with placards deploring what they described as President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s anti-Igbo stance, going by his recent appointments in which none came from the South East geopolitical zone.
They also motioned their move to actualise the emergence of a Biafra Republic in the near future as well as protesting the recent arrest and detention of Nnamdi Kanu, the director of Radio Biafra and a self-acclaimed leader of Biafra Republic, by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS). Kanu’s recent radio outbursts over the Radio Biafra may have done him in.
Policemen, to forestall it from degenerating into a violent attack, dispersed the protesters, said Grace Iringe-koko, spokesperson for the Rivers State police command.
