Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi says Igbos in Ebonyi will not aspire for or be part of Biafra because the state has been “so oppressed.”
“First and foremost, I have been saying it, if anybody tells you about Biafra, tell them Ebonyi state will never be part of Biafra. We are not Biafra. We have been so oppressed, and now we are finding our feet, and you want us to go back. We will not. We will not,” Mr Umahi insisted.
The governor had vowed to carry on from where President Muhammadu Buhari stopped by the end of his tenure if elected the next president in 2023.
Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, has said the state will never be part of Biafra.
This is as the governor stressed that the state was better in a fair and equitable Nigeria, reiterating that “if anybody tells you about Biafra, Ebonyi State will never be part of Biafra”.
Umahi stated this at the Ecumenical Centre, Abakaliki, on Thursday, during a reception organised for him after declaring his presidential bid, in Abuja.
“Let nobody be afraid of the Presidency of an Igbo man. The Igbo man is a builder and not a destroyer. There is no Igbo man that will be the President of this country and would like to divide or destroy it because we have investments everywhere.
“First and foremost, I have been saying it. If anybody tells you about Biafra, Ebonyi State will never be part of Biafra. We are not Biafra.
“We have so oppressed and now we are finding our feet and you want us to go back. We will not. We will not.
According to bank documents, between 2011 and 2019, Mr Umahi has diverted about N3.6 billion into his Brass Engineering, a company he has owned since 1993, since after he became deputy governor to Martin Elechi in 2011, in brazen disregard for extant code of conduct regulations precluding senior public officials from conducting private businesses, except subsistence agriculture, while in office.
“We are not going anywhere. We won’t. We will continue to appeal and dialogue to be treated fairly and equitably like other regions of Nigeria.
“Some enemies of the South-East say if we become President we will divide the country. How will we divide the country? We have investments everywhere,” he said.
