Retired
Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Udom Ekpoudom, has warned Biafra
agitators and Northern youths issuing threats and provocative speeches against
Nigeria to take caution.
He
said while it was easy to speak of violence, such persons will run away if they
witnessed bloodletting on a large scale.
Ekpoudom
appealed to agitators for Biafra to continue to draw attention of the Federal
Government to issues of neglect and marginalization, instead of issuing threats
to split the country.
He
faulted the sit-at-home order issued by Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), saying
the order also contravened the law.
Ekpoudom
said IPOB had no constitutional authority to order a section of the country to
sit at home without the consent of the Federal Government, adding that “It
amounts to running a parallel government.”
On the
ultimatum by Arewa youths, Ekpoudom urged the Nigerian Police and the
Department of State Services (DSS) to exercise their constitutional mandate of
protecting the lives and properties of Nigerians and ensure that those who
issued the quit order were arrested.
The
former top cop noted that the order was not directed at the Igbo alone but the
entire South East, South South and South West residents in the north.
”It is
an indirect call for division of the country which our founding fathers and
nationalists suffered and died to protect”, he told Vanguard.
“Those
beating the drums of war have never experienced the pains of war. Most of those
making inciting and hate speeches were too young or were not born when we had
the Nigerian/Biafra war.
“It’s
unfortunate that those people clamoring for war are being sponsored by people
who don’t have value for this country or are having dual citizenship”, he
added.
Ekpoudom,
however, insisted that Nigeria needed to be restructured based on the
principles of federalism to allow ethnic nationalities manage their own
resources.
“This
constitution came into effect on the first of January 1914. Subsequent inputs
are only amendments here and there.
“We
are still under colonial administration when we consider the ingredients of the
existing constitution. There is need to restructure the country.”
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