"We don’t want secession or war in the South East " – Governor Umahi

Ebonyi state governor, Dave Umahi, has said that the South-eastern region of Nigeria does not want war but rather wants to be a part of a fair Nigeria.

Umahi who is the Chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum spoke on security cooperation between Federal Government and the Southeast Governors at the statehouse today May 20.

“The situation in the South East is a mixture of reality, fake news and war propaganda. There are rightful agitations in the Southeast, but they’ve been hijacked. In the Southeast, we don’t want war, we don’t want to secede, we want to be a part of a fair Nigeria where justice, equity and freedom exist,” he stated.

Gov Umahi endorsed ban on open grazing, saying it’s the right decision, especially in Southeast which does not have historical grazing routes/reserves. He called on Federal Government to do more to enforce implement ranching & business-led models for livestock management.

While speaking about some of the programmes of his administration in Ebonyi State (‘1 person 1 hectare’ agriculture and fertilizer program for public servants, Transport, Microcredit, Women empowerment, Medical Sciences, Infrastructure, etc), he said, “Everywhere you turn in my state is a construction site. 95% of our construction projects in Ebonyi State are done by direct labour, so there is no capital flight, most of the money stays in the State.

“We are building roads to ensure that there is no part of Ebonyi State that cannot be accessed from a Local Government Area Headquarter within 40 minutes. Building roads is an important part of development. And we don’t care which ones are Federal or State roads.”

He added that Ebonyi is developing three (3) industrial Agriculture clusters – comprising land, warehouses, biomass energy supply, factories and mills (for processing rice, cassava etc).

Gov. Umahi mentioned that Imo and Ebonyi States’ Houses of Assembly have passed laws giving backing to the Ebube Agu Security Corps – a regional security cooperation to protect the people – in their States and the other States will follow.

While lamenting that a lot of people have been brainwashed about Biafra, he unequivocally condemned the criminal act of burning down some offices of INEC in the region by hoodlums.

“Our law in Ebonyi is that if you attack farmers or herders and destroy their farmlands/cattle, you must pay compensation.”, he further stated.