Abia State governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has said he has no knowledge about the whereabouts of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

Background:

• Nnamdi Kanu and his father had disappeared after soldiers allegedly attacked his residence in Abia State.
• IPOB had filed a suit, seeking a court order asking the Nigerian Army to produce Nnamdi Kanu.
• Former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu had said Kanu fled to London through Malaysia.

What Ikpeazu said:

While speaking during an interview in Abuja on Thursday, the governor said;

• He said he has no affinity whatsoever with Kanu and could not have known is whereabouts.

He said: “I don’t think that is a fair question. I don’t have the capacity to determine where Kanu is. I have never visited him. I have never called him on phone and he has never taken me into confidence as to what he does, where he goes.

“So, those who are close to him would answer. I don’t have the capacity to monitor him and know where he is, maybe Journalists through investigative journalism will know.”

• Ikpeazu said that the people of south-east had more faith in the Nigerian project than any other geopolitical zone of the country.

He said, “Fundamentally speaking, I think that if the question we ask in this country today about whether there are inequalities, whether there are gaps or there are people who don’t feel that they have been fairly treated either as an individual or as a family or as a geopolitical zone, the answer is yes.

“There is agitation in the northeast, there is an agitation in the south-west, of course there is agitation in the south east but I dare say that there is no other ethnic group in this country that has as much faith in the Nigeria as a country, one united country than the people of the south east, that is why they are in Sambisa.

“You can count how many big businesses belonging to the south westerners that are in Aba. You can count how many big businesses belonging to the people from the north east, north west, north central that you can find in Owerri. You cannot find a four storey building belonging to somebody from the north east anywhere in the south east.

“But if you go to Kano, you don’t count three hotels before you count that of somebody from the south east. What it means is that we are the people that have demonstrated faith in the united Nigeria.

Azeez