Igala dissociates self from Biafra agitation

The Igala SocialCultural Groups has dissociated the Igala nation of Kogi State from the agitators for Biafra.

Addressing a news conference yesterday in Lokoja, the spokesman of the group, Mr Barry Moses Idakwo, expressed anger over the inclusion of the Igala nation in the map of the Republic of Biafra being agitated for by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and others.

The group lamented that it was an attempt to balkanise the ancient Igala nation, stressing that Nigeria was a democratic country where any Nigerian should be allowed to live without any fear of intimidation.

“It is unthinkable to annex the Igala kingdom without consulting us. This is against the spirit of fairness, sovereignty, equity, peaceful cohabitation and democracy to falsely claim that Igala kingdom which was never defeated in any war is part of Biafra,” he said, adding that the Igala ethnic nationality held the unity, oneness and indivisibility of Nigeria as sacrosanct.

“We urge our Igbo brothers to engage the Nigeria nation more purposefully for quality governance rather than agitations for separatist state,” Idakwo said.

The group decried the ‘minimal federal presence’ in Igala kingdom in terms of infrastructure and appealed to the Federal Government to continue work on the construction of the Bagana-Guto bridge which links its people to the FCT, South-east and South-South.

Idakwo said there was urgent need to swear in Professor Stephen Ikani Ocheni as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, having passed through screening at the