Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has said that he supports activities of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
He, however, said he hates violence associated with the group.
Wike, a 2023 presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.
He said, “I support the agitations in the South-East, whether anybody likes it or not, I do.
“We should sit down at the round table and discuss it.
“But again what do I do wrong when you have not gone to say ‘bomb everything there.’ I am a governor and you are telling me what has never happened and I should accept? Do you need to kill everybody in my area simply for me to say I am with you? And I say no, I won’t do that.”
Some critics have been shedding Wike for allegedly saying he was not a supporter of IPOB.
But the governor debunked the claim, wondering where the critics were when he publicly supported IPOB’s cause of agitation against injustice in the region.
Noting that there is injustice and division in the country, Wike, however, said that the best way to protest against injustice can never be by killing innocent souls in the country.
Asked if he sees IPOB as a threat to him, Wike said, “Why will they be a threat to me? It is because of the division in this country today that we have never had this country being divided this way.
“What pains me is that people take politics to think that I want to use this opportunity to fight this person. There came a time IPOB was singing praises about Wike. This Nnamdi Kanu was singing praises (that) Wike is our son.”
