Governors from the south-east have revealed that insecurity in their states has gone beyond actions related to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) (IPOB).
Following a virtual meeting with his colleagues on Wednesday, Dave Umahi, governor of Ebonyi and chairman of the south-east governors forum, released a statement on behalf of the governors.
The governors advised teenagers to be more productive while warning criminals against hiding beneath the Eastern Security Network (ESN) to carry out attacks.
“We warn all criminals who have styled themselves as IPOB/ESN to kill our people to immediately stop,” the statement reads.
“We are aware that the insecurity and killings in South East have gone beyond IPOB/ESN as any criminal finds it easy to hide under such a name to commit crimes. We are determined to do everything to protect the lives and properties of our people.
“Our youths are advised to leverage on the various empowerment and agricultural programmes by our Governors to better their lives.”
The governors also stated that they would look into the recent beheading of two police officers in the south-east.
“We condemn in strong terms the video clip and write-up we saw in some social and print media where two policemen were said to have been killed and their heads cut-off by youths who styled themselves as members of IPOB/ESN,” they said.
“We have resolved among ourselves to work with security agencies to determine the authenticity of this video/report and if found to be true, to apprehend the perpetrators by all possible means to face the law.
“We are aware of similar videos in the past and which when subjected to forensic review were found out to have happened outside Nigeria.
“We assure Nigerians, especially the Police community, that we will not rest until we have done justice to this matter.”
