Benue State government has warned Nnamdi Kanu of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) over his constant claims that the state is part of the Biafra territory.
The state warned Kanu and his group to leave it out of its purported secessionist territory backed up by ulterior motive to undermine the unity of the country.
State Commissioner of Information and Orientation, Lawrence Onoja (Jnr.), gave the warning to the protagonists of IPOB and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, at a news conference in Makurdi.
“We completely and strongly reject his (Kanu) mischievous claim that Benue is part of Biafra. Benue State is not part of any secessionist bid to dismember our great country-Nigeria. The administration of Governor Samuel Ortom would never subscribe to any ulterior and ill-advised agitation to undermine the unity and security of our country,” he said.
Onoja said it became imperative for the state government to openly debunk the claims made by Kanu at various times in the media that Benue was part of his proposed territory for the actualisation of his Biafra dream following the recent unhealthy development in some quarters about the issue.
The commissioner who said that Kanu’s idea was already an exercise in futility, advised him to desist henceforth from using Benue as part of his Biafra actualisation agenda, adding that the state has a distinct language, culture, tradition and ethnicity which definitely are not part of Igbo ethnic group.
“Benue State is a state located in the North-central geopolitical region of the nation and is not part of the South-east even though we see all Nigerians as brothers and sisters but we definitely are not part of the Igbo ethnic group who we regard as our brothers and sisters in a united country,” Onoja maintained.
