Steer Clear of Benue, Rivers - Leaders Warn Nnamdi Kanu

Following Nnamdi Kanu's open announcement of
the States that comprise his anticipated Biafra
Republic, leaders in Benue and Rivers have openly
denounced the plan.

Leaders of the various ethnic nationalities in
Benue and Rivers state have asked Nnamdi Kanu
to steer clear of their lands in his bid to expand
the territory of his proposed Biafra Republic
beyond the five states in the Eastern part of
Nigeria.
Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra
alleged that an agent of the Federal Government,
whose name he did not disclose, offered him
while in detention, to secede with the five Igbo
states but that he rejected the offer because it did
not constitute the complete territory of Biafra.
Kanu had while addressing leaders of an Igbo civil
society coalition said, “They gave me Biafra in
prison with only the five Igbo states; I said no, I
want Benue and Rivers states inclusive.”
But prominent indigenes of the ethnic groups in
Benue and Rivers states, which he is seeking to
annex, described the Biafran agitator as a jester.
For instance, a retired police chief, Abubakar Tsav,
said Kanu must be suffering from ‘mental
ailments’ to utter such utterance.
He said, “I think the man has some mental
problems. What is the connection between the
Tivs, the Idoma and the Igbo? I think the man
needs to see a psychiatric doctor because
something is wrong with him.
“He is not well because nothing connects the
Tivs, the Idoma to the Igbo. How can he say he
wants Benue State to be part of Biafra? He should
stay where he is and carry on with his madness.
We are not ready to be part and parcel of his
madness”
Other prominent indigenes of Tiv, Idoma and
Igede, the three major ethnic groups in Benue
State who also lashed out at Kanu included, a
first-class traditional ruler in Tivland, the Tor
Sankera, Abu King Shuluwa; a former Minister of
Interior, Abba Moro; a former Minister of State for
Education, Professor Jerry Agada and former
Economic Adviser to former president Olusegun
Obasanjo, Professor Ode Ojowu.
King Shuluwa described Kanu as “a man with
little intelligence who dared lumped Benue as part
of Biafra.”
He said, “His level of intelligence is in question,
else, how dare him to annex Benue as part of
Biafra territory. In fact, if you are looking for more
people to be part of your territory, does common
sense not say you should have a talk with them?”
Moro corroborated the monarch’s submission
stressing that the Igbo language, culture and
tradition are clearly different from those of the
three tribes in Benue State.
He said, “Benue is not part of Biafra, we do not
have any relationship with Biafra in genealogy,
culture and by colonial creation, Benue is part of
the north.”
Agada on his part, warned the Indigenous People
of Biafra and the Movement for the Actualisation of
the Sovereign State of Biafra to stop laying claims
to Idoma land as part of their territory.
Also in Rivers State, Ogbakor Ikwerre, a body of
the Ikwerre Ethnic Nationality in Rivers State also
disagreed with Kanu on his demand that Rivers
State must be part of Biafra.
President-General of Ogbakor Ikwerre Cultural
Organisation, Worldwide, Professor Simeon
Achinewhu, told source that Biafra failed
in the past because there were attempts by the
former Biafran leader, late Odumegwu Ojukwu, to
force unwilling minority groups into Biafra.
The President, Ijaw Youth Council, Eric Omare,
asked Kanu to have a rethink about the territory of
the Biafra of his dream and restrict it to the states
of the South-East.
Omare said, “The Ijaw nation has said it times
without number that the South-South especially
the Ijaw are not part of Biafra territory.