The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu has been lambasted by Rivers state indigenes living in the United States and Canada for making inciting statements against the Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike.
The socio-cultural organisation; an umbrella of Ogbakor Ikwerre indigenes in USA/Canada (OIUSA), Inc., rose from their North American continental meeting and denounced Kanu for placing a bounty on Wike and asking members of the public to kill him.
The organisation described Kanu’s statement as unguarded, dangerous, inciting and provocative and advised him to desist from his violent ways.
In a statement released by the president of the organisation, Mr. Eric WorluWelle rebuked Kanu cautioning that what he spewed out of his mouth was capable of causing imminent lawlessness, bitterness and ethnic recrimination especially at a time the country was recovering from the bloodshed that occurred during the #ENDSARS protest.
“How dangerous can anyone who puts a bounty on a sitting state governor be,” WorluWelle, queried.
WorluWelle said Wike ought to have been congratulated for his timely intervention in the Oyigbo crisis that helped nip in the bud a potential ethnic conflict between Hausa/Fulani and Igbo residents in Oyigbo.
He said: “If Governor Wike had not intervened timely in the Oyigbo crisis which was fallout of the #ENDSARS protest, it would have led to bloodletting between Hausa and Igbo communities in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state.
“That could have also escalated and spread to parts of Northern and South Eastern states, potentially turning to a bloody inter-ethnic conflict. These types of unguarded provocative statements underpinned the roots of the 30-month fratricidal Civil War that claimed over a million lives of Nigerians, mostly Igbos.”
He said members of the disbanded IPOB should have thanked Wike for showing effective leadership, and stopping potential Hausa-Igbo conflict instead of calling for his head.
He called on the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, and traditional rulers in the Southeastern states, to call Kanu to order insisting that it was callous to place a bounty on a sitting governor.
He said: “We are also calling on the governors of the Southeastern states , Willie Obiano, Hope Uzodinma, Okezie Ikpeazu, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Dave Umahi to collectively and individually come out and publicly denounce the infuriating and inflaming statement made by the leader of the outlawed IPOB.
“Bounty has never been placed on a sitting governor in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and no governor in the country would like a bounty to be placed on him or her,” OIUSA members said, adding:
“Members of IPOB should not forget that most of their loved ones live and make their daily living in Port Harcourt, home of Iwhuruohna people. One begins to ask if IPOB indeed have the love of their people at heart. For its leader to call for the murder of the Governor of Rivers State is like biting the finger that feeds you.
“Earlier this year, one Ralph Uwazurike injected himself into Rivers State matter, threatening the state governor, and now, Nnamdi Kanu is calling for the murder of the governor, and offering an incentive and reward for anyone who commits the crime. Enough is enough.”
The group called on the Governor’s Forum to publicly condemn the dangerous statement made by the IPOB leader saying he should not be allowed to continue threatening the life of a sitting governor.
The group said it had reported the matter to the British High Commission in Nigeria, the United Nation Security Council, the American Embassy in Abuja and Lagos, the European Union Security Organization, the Nigerian Senate and Security organizations among others.