Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi, has absolved the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) of culpability in attacks on police facilities in the South East, noting that the attacks are being carried out by criminals whose key motivation is criminality.

There have been attacks on police stations in various states of the South East, which the police had blamed on the IPOB.

However, speaking on Channels TV breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily on Thursday, monitored by our correspondent, Umahi said the group is not responsible for the attacks.

The governor who noted that about 95 percent of police officers killed during the attacks are people from the South East, said criminals who carry out the attacks only tag themselves IPOB to play into the prosecution of the group by the federal government.

“What is happening now is that some criminals will go and commit crime and say they are IPOB so that they will play into the prosecution of IPOB by the federal government,” Umahi said.

“The other day in Ebonyi State, the criminals attacked a police station and carted away arms. The next day, they went to rob with the arms, and fortunately they were caught. So, these are just criminals carrying out these attacks.”