Why I will not dethrone Nnamdi Kanu's father - Ikpeazu speaks
The Abia State governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has said he has received different calls from different groups in his state for the dethronement of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's father as a traditional ruler.
His Royal Highness, Eze Isreal Kanu,
is the father of the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
As the traditional ruler of Afara Ukwu Ibeku Autonomous Community in Abia State, a group known as the Umuahia Youths Movement On Sunday gave governor Ikpeazu a 24-hour ultimatum to dethrone him as paramount ruler for not be able to control his son (Kanu) to stop the Biafra agitation which led the Nigerian army to besieged every street in Umuahia.
Contrary to that, another group, Ibeku Youth Assembly warned against any attempt to remove the traditional ruler from his throne.
Governor Ikpeazu, who was at the Presidential Villa to brief President Muhammadu Buhari who was represented by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on the security situations in his state told State House correspondents that there was a difference between Kanu and his father.
According to him, “I clearly separate Kanu from his father. The processes of handling traditional institutions are enshrined in the laws of our land.
“Traditional rulers who are members of our constituency have leadership, they will do the needful at the appropriate time. But for me, I think their is a clear division between Nnamdi Kanu and his father.”
Fielding question on what went wrong, he said, “It depends from what point to what point. But if you are referring to what happened in the past one week. Nigerians know that for some time now this group called IPOB is agitating for a separate nation called Biafra and that the home state of the leader of that group happens to be Abia State.
“As expected, when such things happen there is an interface between some members of that group and the military, and the theater was Abia state.
“Some people attempted to hijack that event to conflagrat our country. To the glory of God, the rest is history, we are still working to stabilize the fragile peace in the region. I thank God also for the instruments he used to be able to keep our country as one. We are humbled by the privileges.”
On what he told the northern governors that were in his state as a result of the ethnic tension generated by the clash between the army and IPOB, he said that he assured the northern governors of the safety of their people in Abia State.
He said, “Well, I assured them of safety of lives and property of everybody that resides in Abia whether you are an Abian or not an Abian. I swore with the Bible to protect lives and property and because I take such things seriously, I will continue to protect the lives and property of my brothers and sisters irrespective of where they come from.
“You know that the main stay of our economy in Abia State is trade and commerce and I do not think it will augur well for our economy if we make our kitchen the theater of Biafra.
“A native wisdom in my place says you shouldn’t allow fight to ensue from your mother’s kitchen. It is my responsibility also to grow prosperity from my state.” Commenting on the essence of his meeting with the Vice President, he said,
“Well, naturally I am heading a subnational government when this kind of thing happens which would have had dimension of national proportion, it is right that you will come and brief the Commander-in-Chief or his vice and that is exactly what I have come to do.”
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