Biafra agitators, Northern youths will run away if they see war – Retired DIG, Ekpoudom

Retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Udom Ekpoudom, has warned Biafra agitators and Northern youths issuing threats and provocative speeches against Nigeria to take caution.

He said while it was easy to speak of violence, such persons will run away if they witnessed bloodletting on a large scale.

Ekpoudom appealed to agitators for Biafra to continue to draw attention of the Federal Government to issues of neglect and marginalization, instead of issuing threats to split the country.

He faulted the sit-at-home order issued by Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), saying the order also contravened the law.

Ekpoudom said IPOB had no constitutional authority to order a section of the country to sit at home without the consent of the Federal Government, adding that “It amounts to running a parallel government.”

On the ultimatum by Arewa youths, Ekpoudom urged the Nigerian Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) to exercise their constitutional mandate of protecting the lives and properties of Nigerians and ensure that those who issued the quit order were arrested.

The former top cop noted that the order was not directed at the Igbo alone but the entire South East, South South and South West residents in the north.

”It is an indirect call for division of the country which our founding fathers and nationalists suffered and died to protect”, he told Vanguard.

“Those beating the drums of war have never experienced the pains of war. Most of those making inciting and hate speeches were too young or were not born when we had the Nigerian/Biafra war.

“It’s unfortunate that those people clamoring for war are being sponsored by people who don’t have value for this country or are having dual citizenship”, he added.

Ekpoudom, however, insisted that Nigeria needed to be restructured based on the principles of federalism to allow ethnic nationalities manage their own resources.

“This constitution came into effect on the first of January 1914. Subsequent inputs are only amendments here and there.

“We are still under colonial administration when we consider the ingredients of the existing constitution. There is need to restructure the country.”